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You and the people writing these articles need to take a less US-centric view of this situation. This has been going on for a long time in non-English speaking

You and the people writing these articles need to take a less US-centric view of this situation. This has been going on for a long time in non-English speaking communities. My hope is that now that it has become very noticeable in the US maybe they'll do something about it, but it's entirely possible they do nothing for the reasons you said.

tsneed290 10y ago
Could you expand on this? I'm genuinely curious.
cpeterso 10y ago
How do people (readers or news agencies) handle this problem in non-English speaking communities? I'm curious what approaches have already been tried.
- praisewhitey 10y ago
  Until the 2000s there was only one evening news broadcast and a few newspapers. But most people didn't bother with those and got their informations from friends and family. It was mostly nonsense before Facebook too. Facebook just made it digital and public. And that's the problem. The people who make up this stuff can see when it's being shared, and commented on, and what resonates most with people. They can write up the perfect crazy story for my Mom and Uncle to talk about like they have done for the past 60 years. I can go in and say this is fake, don't believe anything you read from this website or facebook page, and sometimes they'll believe me. But that doesn't stop the content from flooding in. The only thing I can think of is getting people to stop using Facebook altogether.
- touzen 10y ago
  In Sweden, we have had numerous incidents where fake news has been spread with the purpose of spreading anti-immigrant sentiment. A recent example is a rumour stating that we had banned christmas decorations as it might offend muslim immigrants. What actually happened was that the Swedish Transport Administration had urged people not to decorate street poles as it might be a violation of our electricity laws. [0] We haven't really figured out how to address these issues. The best we've got now is an initiative by Metro called Viralgranskaren (~"viral post inspector") that debunks myths like these. [1] What I think needs to happen is for the education system to start putting a larger emphasis on skepticism and source criticism. These skills and qualities are crucial for a 21th century liberal democracy. [0]: http://www.snopes.com/sweden-bans-christmas-lights/ http://www.snopes.com/sweden-bans-christmas-lights/ [1]: http://www.metro.se/nyheter/viralgranskaren/ http://www.metro.se/nyheter/viralgranskaren/ (sadly only available in Swedish, it seems)

tsneed290 10y ago

Could you expand on this? I'm genuinely curious.

cpeterso 10y ago

How do people (readers or news agencies) handle this problem in non-English speaking communities? I'm curious what approaches have already been tried.

praisewhitey 10y ago
Until the 2000s there was only one evening news broadcast and a few newspapers. But most people didn't bother with those and got their informations from friends and family. It was mostly nonsense before Facebook too. Facebook just made it digital and public. And that's the problem. The people who make up this stuff can see when it's being shared, and commented on, and what resonates most with people. They can write up the perfect crazy story for my Mom and Uncle to talk about like they have done for the past 60 years. I can go in and say this is fake, don't believe anything you read from this website or facebook page, and sometimes they'll believe me. But that doesn't stop the content from flooding in. The only thing I can think of is getting people to stop using Facebook altogether.
touzen 10y ago
In Sweden, we have had numerous incidents where fake news has been spread with the purpose of spreading anti-immigrant sentiment. A recent example is a rumour stating that we had banned christmas decorations as it might offend muslim immigrants. What actually happened was that the Swedish Transport Administration had urged people not to decorate street poles as it might be a violation of our electricity laws. [0] We haven't really figured out how to address these issues. The best we've got now is an initiative by Metro called Viralgranskaren (~"viral post inspector") that debunks myths like these. [1] What I think needs to happen is for the education system to start putting a larger emphasis on skepticism and source criticism. These skills and qualities are crucial for a 21th century liberal democracy. [0]: http://www.snopes.com/sweden-bans-christmas-lights/ http://www.snopes.com/sweden-bans-christmas-lights/ [1]: http://www.metro.se/nyheter/viralgranskaren/ http://www.metro.se/nyheter/viralgranskaren/ (sadly only available in Swedish, it seems)