After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it became clear to a lot of people, including me, that the issue of fake news on the internet merited some deeper discussion. As all the major intelligence agencies revealed that Russian actors tried to sway the election with an organized campaign of online misinformation, we were conducting our […]
Inside Facebook’s race to separate news from junk
At Facebook, there are two competing goals: keep the platform free and open to a broad spectrum of ideas and opinions, while reducing the spread of misinformation. The company says it’s not in the business of making editorial judgments, so they use fact-checkers, artificial intelligence and their users. Can they stop junk news from adapting? […]
Inside the Filter Bubble – with Eli Pariser, the man who coined the phrase.
The Internet was supposed to provide a utopian virtual world where all of us could come together in peace, love and harmony to better understand each other and our differing viewpoints… But we got derailed on the road to utopia, didn’t we? Eli Pariser, the man who coined the phrase “filter bubble”, knows as much […]
Just the Facts – an interview with Brooke Binkowski of Snopes.com
Long before Facebook, Twitter or even Google existed, the fact checking website Snopes.com was running down the half-truths, misinformation, and outright lies that ricochet across the Internet. Today it remains a widely respected clearinghouse of all things factual and not. As part of my series for the PBS NewsHour on the rise and role […]