There are a couple of sites that promote what’s known as ‘fake news’ and also share other fake news sites. Facebook has lately been awash with news that’s not only untrue, but harmful & hurtful.
Cracking down on this and being unable to get advertising for their own sites is a fitting punishment IMO.
Fake News = something that can be proven with facts as untrue
An example happening right now is several articles calling out Obama for not visiting the site of Hurricane Katrina. While it’s correct that he didn’t visit - he also wasn’t president at the time.
Oh yes, I agree that a lot of news is opinion, but when they start stating things that didn’t happen or are simply untrue, they need to be held accountable.
My Facebook feed is rife with some of my relatives sharing things that simply are not true. While it would only take them a few seconds to verify facts, they simply choose to believe everything they read and then share it.
If I point out that what they’re sharing isn’t true, they become defensive and tell me that they read it on the internet…
A lot of people regard anything they see in print as if it were from the pages of their home town newspaper reporting on Friday night’s HS football game. Most of us here know that this just isn’t so, the folks on the internet and social media have axes ( or other sharp bladed instruments ) to grind.
Another adage, “Believe none of what you hear and very little of what you see.”
It applies even more to the internet. I expect that we will get some form of regulations before long.
Again, I don’t Social Media. Don’t Drink & Drive either.
Oh God it would make my day if any of the major news networks got flagged. I read an article the other day that the chief editor for the Washington Post(might have been the Wall Street Journal) was complaining about other staff members sharing more opinionated articles as though they were fact instead of just reporting the straight facts.
At the end of the day there will need to be some form of regulation not only on the internet but also on what has always been thought of as the “Free” press.
Which will shake Pandora’s box, open it, turn it upside down and give it a Hard thump.
