5 ms·

My concern about the Fake News come from a different viewpoint: it's not about politics, it's about commerce. A very common digital ad is: "The Rock arrested f

My concern about the Fake News come from a different viewpoint: it's not about politics, it's about commerce. A very common digital ad is: "The Rock arrested for suspected steroid abuse" and a picture of him in cuffs (screenshotted from a movie). If you click through to the landing page it is a hard sell for some body building supplement that's "so good it should be illegal." In other words Fake News is a dark pattern and with the election the same shady, spammy, scummy folks switched it up for politics. They're putting out fake news stories on both sides [1] just trying to drive clicks and shares and get people outraged enough they'll "Like/Share" the ad to their social networks. 1 - http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/ http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/

rdtsc 10y ago
> it's not about politics, it's about commerce. Absolutely. The other classic is ads disguised as news. Sometimes they'd usually be a little disclaimer but not always. Some videos have people acting like news anchors talking about buying cleaning products. So it is about revenue as well. However I don't think it is coincidental everyone all of the sudden started to talk about "Fake News" since a few days ago.
- soundwave106 10y ago
  Previously when these type of patterns were brought up, the discussion was more using the terms "clickbait" and the concerns were about hidden "sponsored advertising". Using inflammatory populist politics to sell shady items is a pretty old pattern too (certainly it has existed throughout my lifetime). I agree it's a boogey-man to think it decided the election. Personally, I stopped using Facebook a long time ago partially because of the platform's embrace of "clickbait" and obnoxious "viral" sponsored content. The "fake news" stories, which are just another side of the same coin, confirms to me that Facebook is not a terribly trustworthy social media platform. Maybe it will confirm this to other people too. So it will be interesting to see how Facebook reacts.
eoirs 10y ago
Well then why did Obama had to mention it.
makomk 10y ago
Of course, a large chunk of the press has been running this exact kind of fake news ad on their sites: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/business/media/publishers-rethink-outbrain-taboola-ads.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/business/media/publishers-... So they'd have to criticise themselves.

rdtsc 10y ago

> it's not about politics, it's about commerce. Absolutely. The other classic is ads disguised as news. Sometimes they'd usually be a little disclaimer but not always. Some videos have people acting like news anchors talking about buying cleaning products. So it is about revenue as well. However I don't think it is coincidental everyone all of the sudden started to talk about "Fake News" since a few days ago.

soundwave106 10y ago
Previously when these type of patterns were brought up, the discussion was more using the terms "clickbait" and the concerns were about hidden "sponsored advertising". Using inflammatory populist politics to sell shady items is a pretty old pattern too (certainly it has existed throughout my lifetime). I agree it's a boogey-man to think it decided the election. Personally, I stopped using Facebook a long time ago partially because of the platform's embrace of "clickbait" and obnoxious "viral" sponsored content. The "fake news" stories, which are just another side of the same coin, confirms to me that Facebook is not a terribly trustworthy social media platform. Maybe it will confirm this to other people too. So it will be interesting to see how Facebook reacts.

eoirs 10y ago

Well then why did Obama had to mention it.

makomk 10y ago

Of course, a large chunk of the press has been running this exact kind of fake news ad on their sites: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/business/media/publishers-rethink-outbrain-taboola-ads.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/business/media/publishers-... So they'd have to criticise themselves.