"Fake News"?

[Dutto]

BBC Text Service today:

‘The UK faces a ‘democratic crisis’ due to the spread of ‘pernicious views’ and data being manipulated, a parliamentary committee is set up to warn.

The Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee has been investigating disinformation and fake news following the Cambridge Analytical data scandal.

In its first report, MPs will suggest social media companies should face tougher regulation or a new tax.

It also proposes measures to combat electoral interference.”

I particularly liked the “…. new tax.” element.

If we made the rich and powerful pay their current taxes then maybe they wouldn’t have enough money to bend information for their own advantage.

Could YOU detect fake news BEFORE it affects your life?

Us 'Golden Oldies' have often thought or said "That can't be right." and it's unfortunate that on many occasions we have been proved correct ...

... but only after the event! aunsure.... aunsure....

 

[MyQul]

I dont believe anything you've just posted. It's fake news

 

[divrack]

It's like when the mafia get enraged by other upstarts coming in and doing crime.
Fake news: it was ever thus.
Understandably the msm is getting upset due to the logical contortions they have had to do differentiating good terrorists here bad terrorists there, good dictator here, bad dictator there, depending on the extent the often same individuals are helping western interests or otherwise.
Defending a man previously recorded eating a corpses heart was a highlight.
Other fun contortions being Putin, darling of the neoliberals until the exact moment he kicked out western interests from some oil fields from which point he became persona non grata.
So yes I'm not terribly worried about facebook and some joke news coming from wherever.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I read about this earlier on BBC News and its all about the leave campaign if this turns into another Brexit discussion its history!

(Obviously i have done what i have said not to above but this will be the only reference to Brexit here)

.

 

[Clint]

Here's some...
Gunge is lounging round in his garden wearing shorts,flip flops and shades...see,fake!
I have adopted the "believe it when you see it" theory....seems to work.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Gunge is lounging round in his garden wearing shorts,flip flops and shades in October.

Now believable.

 

[divrack]

BBC Text Service today:

‘The UK faces a ‘democratic crisis’ due to the spread of ‘pernicious views’ and data being manipulated, a parliamentary committee is set up to warn.

The Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee has been investigating disinformation and fake news following the Cambridge Analytical data scandal.

In its first report, MPs will suggest social media companies should face tougher regulation or a new tax.

It also proposes measures to combat electoral interference.”

I particularly liked the “…. new tax.” element.

If we made the rich and powerful pay their current taxes then maybe they wouldn’t have enough money to bend information for their own advantage.

Could YOU detect fake news BEFORE it affects your life?

Us 'Golden Oldies' have often thought or said "That can't be right." and it's unfortunate that on many occasions we have been proved correct ...

... but only after the event! aunsure.... aunsure....

My opinion of the whole 'fake news' is less an issue of any change in the level of fakeness of news and more an issue of the inability of anyone to accept or see the opinions of others or any facts that disagree with a persons assumptions about things. this is exemplified in going beyond fake news as an accusation to the extremes of denying the very existence of the person with opposing viewpoints, as in 'russian bot' 'paid shill' or just the simple 'troll!' if you dont like what you are hearing. i guess this is a symptom of social media, and the bubbles of filtered reality they create.

 

[MyQul]

My opinion of the whole 'fake news' is less an issue of any change in the level of fakeness of news and more an issue of the inability of anyone to accept or see the opinions of others or any facts that disagree with a persons assumptions about things. this is exemplified in going beyond fake news as an accusation to the extremes of denying the very existence of the person with opposing viewpoints, as in 'russian bot' 'paid shill' or just the simple 'troll!' if you dont like what you are hearing. i guess this is a symptom of social media, and the bubbles of filtered reality they create.

I think your right. Some people like trump try to use it to shut down debate or stop genuine scrutiny of an issue

 

[Ajhutch]

Carling is the best beer in the world

Fake brews

 

[MyQul]

Carling is the best beer in the world

Fake brews

 

[Dutto]

I read about this earlier on BBC News and its all about the leave campaign ..........

Sorry but your paranoia is showing! aunsure....

"Fake News" has been growing exponentially since Goebbels used it in WW2 and people have been refining it ever since!

As a "for instance", I live in the town where is was announced by the German government during WW2 that they had sunk HMS Royal Arthur. The announcement, made by Lord Haw-Haw, somewhat dented his already tarnished reputation because 99% of the people hereabouts knew that HMS Royal Arthur was actually Butlin's Holiday Camp; which had been taken over as a training base by the MoD!

Fake news has been used extensively during many recent political campaigns, which is probably why our government's DCMS Committee is investigating its impact and warning us about it.
:thumb:

 

[MyQul]

'Fake news' is just 21st century buzz word. As far as I can tell it's exactly the same as propoganda or misinformation

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Sorry but your paranoia is showing!

You started your post with "BBC Text Service today" i then visit the BBC News site and find a headline that says "Fake news a democratic crisis for UK, MPs warn"
read it yourself (link below) and you will see its all about the leave campaign and you will also see i was not being paranoid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44967650

.

 

[Oneiroi]

Despite their biases and lenses by and large the ‘MSM’ can’t just lie and make stuff up without consequence.

The daily mails front page correction this week is a good example.

There’s a real difference between them and the completely made up and unregulated content online that’s been generated at a mind boggling rate during recent elections all over the world, with the sole intention of misleading people.

Some regulation on social media might help, but the only long term answer has to be making people more prepared to see through the ********


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Davemc]

Part of the problem though is that to label it fake news implies that it is being done at a visible level to a large audience and can, therefore, be seen (by those with an open mind) to be fake. Some of what has come out of the DCMS review shows that there were a lot of targeted "dark Adverts" on social media designed to play to people's prejudices. These adverts are not regulated and are only visible to the target audience, therefore, the wider public never see them and they can contain misinformation and most likely did.

Unfortunately, it is sad how many people are prepared to suspend reality and logic and believe almost anything they see on social media despite how ridiculous it is. Case in point, a Facebook friend shared a post that said a worker at the factory that made Anchor butter had been deliberately contaminating it with HIV. Warning people to avoid buying it. A few moments on google confirmed my initial reaction that it was fake, with snopes confirming this. Logically if it had happened for real it would have been all over the news yet people are prepared to believe it and share it without thinking or checking it. Imagine what you can achieve with sophisticated targeted messages to such an audience.

 

[Dutto]

BBC Text Service today:
.................

You started your post with "BBC Text Service today" ..........

Precisely. :thumb:

The BBC Text Service is a well known source of information, it is available on EVERY television in this and adjacent countries that have any BBC programme and is fitted with a "Red Button" or "Text Button".

I just cannot accept that I am in any way culpable if someone chooses to go looking somewhere else. Sorry. aunsure....

PS

Here's another link on the same subject as the OP and this one also fails to mention that which should not be mentioned!

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2018/07/27/new-laws-needed-to-tackle-fake-news-on-social-media-mps-warn/

 

[Dutto]

...........

Some regulation on social media might help, but the only long term answer has to be making people more prepared to see through the ********

Agreed! :thumb:

The problem is that many of the social media outlets are adverse to any reasoned argument that doesn't coincide with their own views. As a result, valid information is often suppressed and never sees the light of day.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Precisely. :thumb:

The BBC Text Service is a well known source of information, it is available on EVERY television in this and adjacent countries that have any BBC programme and is fitted with a "Red Button" or "Text Button".
I just cannot accept that I am in any way culpable if someone chooses to go looking somewhere else. Sorry. aunsure....

Why are you taking this so personally my request (below) was aimed at ALL members not just YOU and it was simply asking members not to turn it into a Brexit argument bearing in mind excluding TV and Radio most of us get our news from the BBC News site NOT a text service and under the Fake News headline on the BBC News site was an article about Brexit!

I read about this earlier on BBC News and its all about the leave campaign if this turns into another Brexit discussion its history!
(Obviously i have done what i have said not to above but this will be the only reference to Brexit here)

 

[divrack]

funny. symptomatic of the level of debate and the subject of 'fake news'... everyone just wants to have a meta argument using whatever as a proxy for their biases. some people do seem obsessed by certain topics... such as, russian trolls or {content redacted}.

 

[AdeDunn]

Replying with care...

All "news" is fake news to some degree or other, because all news is presented to the public by the media, all of whom have a bias of some sort of another, and so will slant the news to fit their particular bias, and appeal to their customer base. My approach to this is to gather my news from as many sources as possible, even sources that are of a bias totally contradictory to my own, and to try to synthesise a more accurate picture from this.

All of this said, most of the time I just see Trump using the words "fake news!" in place of "news that I don't like!".... Plenty of other folks doing the exactly same thing too.

The British public will NEVER be given unadulterated facts about ANY topic by the media, because they're boring and we'd not pay for them.... Plus just look at who owns most of the popular media, people who actively want to manipulate the masses. lol Like my dad, the self proclaimed Socialist, who reads The Sun.... lol Individuals can be very intelligent, "the people" however are as dumb as a box of rocks.