Facebook and Google are fighting a losing battle against fake news – that's because the problem is simply too big for them to control. While it is good that they are at least trying, the reality of the situation is the two can only reduce the amount of fake news and misinformation.
Fake news, disinformation, and misinformation have all emerged as popular terms in the last year. While they are largely considered synonymous with each other, defining what is fake news, disinformation or misinformation is becoming increasingly more nuanced. However, that has not stopped Facebook or Google from introducing new features to try and stop it from happening in the first place. In fact, Facebook and Google are not alone in the cause – most other social media sites are taking a similar route. Simply due to their scope and reach, Facebook and Google are mostly charged with the responsibility of dealing with the problem.
The issue Facebook and Google face is monumental, and while the two pride themselves on creating new technologies, algorithms, and other forms of smarter processing, this is not a problem technology alone can fix. Certainly not yet anyway. This is why in spite of those technological advancements, Facebook, Google, et al still tend to rely on the use of human intervention as a means to fight fake news. Whether that’s human moderators trawling through posts, or the actual user base actively reporting posts, the emphasis is on humans doing the work and not machines, or even machine learning. That itself leads to one major hurdle Facebook and Google are unlikely to overcome.
Google might be able to index the entire internet, but policing it is another story entirely. The sheer volume of posts, tweets, updates, and so on is so great that there isn’t enough physical manpower for these companies to be in control of the issue. Even if there was, the act of continually and physically identifying, reviewing, and removing all of the fake news would take so long that it would have already gotten out into the interweb and into the minds of those it looks to corrupt. From the fake news’ point of view, the job is done.
The only other way that the likes of Facebook and Google could look to combat the spread proactively, is to place limits on free speech, or worst still, nullify the speech of some completely. In fact, this has already started to take place with many high profile individuals having their social media accounts suspended or permanently deactivated because they, as a person, have been labelled as a fake news or misinformation source. While banning at the source could be a good way to cut off the flow of misinformation, it removes the person’s complete ability to voice anything at all. While some may argue that’s the price that needs to be paid, it is not exactly dealing with the problem as it is just simply shifting it to another area of the internet. Therein is Facebook and Google’s ultimate and fundamental problem as the internet is so vast, varied, and unregulated that shutting down anything, and on a permanent basis, seems almost impossible. Facebook and Google might be able to reduce, shadow ban or bury fake news, disinformation and misinformation, they likely won’t ever win the war because it was already lost long ago.
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