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Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

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Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#4
The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works!

As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed.

Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#6
post #4

The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works! As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed. Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

Ok I will tell you.

We need a site like askpatents where each claims are hyperlinked to supporting evidence, with ONE forum for debating one side or the other, and voting the best arguments to the top. Then, news stories containing reputable claims would link to the site. Those articles that would spread fake news could have their claims autolinked to the page debunking it.

To game this, you would have to create tons of accounts upvoting bad arguments, downvoting good ones, and overloading the links to biased secondary sources. But the arguments would still be there. Ultimately how does science avoid such sabotage?

Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#7
post #6
post #4

The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works! As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed. Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

Ok I will tell you. We need a site like askpatents where each claims are hyperlinked to supporting evidence, with ONE forum for debating one side or the other, and voting the best arguments to the top. Then, news stories containing reputable claims would link to the site. Those articles that would spread fake news could have their claims autolinked to the page debunking it. To game this, you would have to create tons…

>To game this, you would have to create tons of accounts upvoting bad arguments, downvoting good ones, and overloading the links to biased secondary sources. But the arguments would still be there.

This doesn't seem like much of a hurdle. It basically describes what happens on reddit, with varying degrees of success. I know of no large social site that's solved this problem.

Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#8
post #6
post #4

The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works! As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed. Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

Ok I will tell you. We need a site like askpatents where each claims are hyperlinked to supporting evidence, with ONE forum for debating one side or the other, and voting the best arguments to the top. Then, news stories containing reputable claims would link to the site. Those articles that would spread fake news could have their claims autolinked to the page debunking it. To game this, you would have to create tons…

> To game this, you would have to create tons of accounts upvoting bad arguments, downvoting good ones, and overloading the links to biased secondary sources.

Like what's happening in Reddit?

This is not too difficult to do.

The problem with fake news is anonymity. So long as it's possible to create tens of thousands of accounts without real world association to a human person, this problem, and all problems associated with trolling and brigading on the internet, will persist.

Anonymity is the best thing about the internet, and the worst thing about the internet.

Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#9
post #4

The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works! As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed. Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

I am reminded of the experiment where a cockroach had brain implants that allowed its movement to be controlled electronically. After a while the cockroach would figure out the signal the researchers were using and its brain ignored it effectively locking out the researchers. At some point it was figured out that if random noise (music) was constantly transmitted the cockroach could be controlled much longer before its brain figured out what signal to block. In the end it would always figure out what signal the researchers were using.

Right now fake news is merely manipulative signal wrapped in noise. If cockroaches can figure it out, so can every human on earth.

Alternatively we could start a reality tv show where every week fake news company executives are tried for treason and executed. Hell kick it up to 3x a week I'd watch it.

Re: Kenyans bombarded with fake news in presidential election [video]

#10
post #6
post #4

The cat is out of the bag- this stuff works! As most of us here know, fake news is an incredibly tricky problem to address. You tell me the tool that solves it, and I'll tell you how it can be gamed. Democracy's only hope is to build a culture of transparency and healthy skepticism.

Ok I will tell you. We need a site like askpatents where each claims are hyperlinked to supporting evidence, with ONE forum for debating one side or the other, and voting the best arguments to the top. Then, news stories containing reputable claims would link to the site. Those articles that would spread fake news could have their claims autolinked to the page debunking it. To game this, you would have to create tons…

So basically Wikipedia? Why do you think people will trust it and use it exclusively for information?
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