Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
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Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
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Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#2[deleted]
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#3I really don't like the "fact checks" being done by news sites these days - that's your responsibility as a reader, tech can't do it for you.
Even more reputable sites like Snopes tend to draw absolutist conclusions about things which I find are certainly not absolute.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#4I mean, I'm all for Google deciding that in the interests of pluralism and avoiding partisanship in its filtering it can't rule out Breitbart, political blogs or even Infowars as news sources, but including a web forum which - quite apart from being an infamous cesspool - doesn't even pretend to be a news source in Google News results?!
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#5Google admits to being a search engine.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#6I really don't like the "fact checks" being done by news sites these days - that's your responsibility as a reader, tech can't do it for you. Even more reputable sites like Snopes tend to draw absolutist conclusions about things which I find are certainly not absolute.
"Do your own research!" is precisely how we wind up with conspiracy theories in the first place.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#7I really don't like the "fact checks" being done by news sites these days - that's your responsibility as a reader, tech can't do it for you. Even more reputable sites like Snopes tend to draw absolutist conclusions about things which I find are certainly not absolute.
I disagree and maintain that news organizations and information organizations like Facespace, Google News, Twitter, etc, should have a "reliability value" beside links or stories that a large number of users are sharing or reposting. Even if it's just a simple "2% of users found this unreliable information" or "97% of 104 users find this source to be reliable."
To say that the information distributors can publish whatever they want and the responsibility of information accuracy and quality must fall on the layuser, that's just poppycock. That's just a way for the giants to save money while we all get questionable data with which to live our lives. Unacceptable.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#8I really don't like the "fact checks" being done by news sites these days - that's your responsibility as a reader, tech can't do it for you. Even more reputable sites like Snopes tend to draw absolutist conclusions about things which I find are certainly not absolute.
"Do your own research!" is precisely how we wind up with conspiracy theories in the first place.
Critical thinking is a fundamental requirement of an educated electorate.
Google and Facebook are culpable, but the news consumer is the problem. If you believe any information put in front of you, we've already lost.
EDIT: @mikeash: We don't give up. I just don't know what the solution is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@projekti: If "it doesn't scale", your only option is to meet with your representatives with a lobbying group, and introduce legislation to bring Google, Facebook, and other tech companies under US government oversight with legislation. They will not do this willingly, except possibly under the threat of regulation.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#9I really don't like the "fact checks" being done by news sites these days - that's your responsibility as a reader, tech can't do it for you. Even more reputable sites like Snopes tend to draw absolutist conclusions about things which I find are certainly not absolute.
They are just media commentary. Should newspapers do movie reviews or should they stick to baseball box scores?
I sort of think the radical idea is that a "news aggregator" is some new thing that can operate without editorial standards. People should be mocking Google for the shit job they do highlighting content.
Re: Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Do your own research!" is precisely how we wind up with conspiracy theories in the first place.
Critical thinking is a fundamental requirement of an educated electorate. Google and Facebook are culpable, but the news consumer is the problem. If you believe any information put in front of you, we've already lost. EDIT: @mikeash: We don't give up. I just don't know what the solution is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @projekti: If "it doesn't scale", your only option is to meet with your representatives with a lobbying group, and intr…
That's a lovely idea, but said requirement isn't in our election laws, and it's quite clear that plenty of voters lack even basic critical thinking skills.
29% of LA Republicans blame Obama for the federal government's response to Katrina. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/08/polls_show_lo...
It's fundamentally responsible for news media to take a subject like vaccines or "was Obama president during Hurricane Katrina?" and give a solid, well-sourced answer instead of "well one side says X and the other says Y".