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Trust Indicators and Fake News

It is no secret that we have a significant "Fake News" problem in the world today. Before everyone starts preparing their defenses for their favorite news sources, let me clarify that I am not talking about "Biased News". As much as President Trump likes to say it, CNN is not actually "Fake News" and neither is FOX, NBC, ABC, et cetera. Biased as these sites may be at times (mostly all the time), the news they are reporting is based in fact; it just has a very biased spin. I would think that functioning adults would be able to tell the difference between:
"Trump signs healthcare reform in to law causing issues for middle-class"
and
"Trump seen punching babies on his way out of gentleman's club"

While there is no way for me to know if the second statement ever happened (I highly doubt it), I would assume that most people would understand that one is fake and one is biased. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a point that people either don't care if something is fake because it supports their tightly-held beliefs, or people really just can't tell the difference. I personally believe that are country is in crisis if the latter if true.

Technology companies, especially those that foster news sharing such as Facebook and Google, have finally begun to combat the problem. As I read on Engadget (link below), these companies have gotten many of the top news providers to agree to "Trust Indicators" next to their articles. These indicators will show information about the story, journalist, and provider. Their hope is that people will see this information, read it, and actually make smart decisions based on this information.

My thoughts on this are that this may be all for naught. My experience with many that read most of these "shady" articles do not care about the source or even the journalist. Their thoughts are that these articles reinforce their biases and allow them to feel more secure in their beliefs. The idea that those with hardcore beliefs strong enough to read (and believe) these outrageous stories are going to suddenly see reason seems pretty far-fetched.

However, I will ask you. What are your thoughts on indicators on articles designed to weed out "Fake News"? Do you believe that this will actually make an impact, or is this going to just be another exercise in insanity for thinking the consumption of these stories can be stopped?


Engadget link: https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/16/facebook-google-and-others-add-trust-icons-to-tackle-fake-news/

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