Fake News. What’s really B.S. and how do we get rid of it?

Kelly Strain

Fake News. What’s really B.S. and how do we get rid of it?

If you have been on the internet this week you are aware of the fake news crisis spiralling out of control. But just in case you missed it, recent headlines read something like this: Facebook is being blamed for Trump's election, Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites, Facebook’s fake news crisis deepens.

With great power comes great responsibility

Facebook has over 1 billion active users who utilize the platform to post, share and comment on news. When Facebook was accused of influencing the election, Zuckerberg was quick to say that was a “pretty crazy idea.” Is it really that crazy? Facebook has become a catalyst for the spread of fake news given the ease of it’s “share” button. Regardless, fake news isn’t going away anytime soon, it will likely worsen and while Facebook has taken steps to limit the sites' use of their ad networks, there has been no push to eliminate fake news from the News Feed.

This daunting issue is not Facebook’s alone. Any platform that allows user generated content would be wise to get out ahead of this growing problem in order to prevent this spam and protect their brand.  Continue reading