For this assignment, I have chosen to research Facebook and Twitter’s current attempts to curb misinformation on their platforms.
In today’s digital age, social media platforms play a significant role in shaping public communication and information. However, with the rise of misinformation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been under scrutiny for handling of false information. In this blog post, I am researching the current efforts Facebook and Twitter do to combat misinformation on their platforms, evaluate their effectiveness of their policies, and also providing suggestions for improvement.
Facebook has implemented several measures to combat misinformation on its platform. One of the key initiatives is the fact checking program, this is where third party fact checkers review and rate the accuracy of facebook’s content. If a piece of information is found to be false, Facebook then reduces its distribution and shows a warning label to users that come across this content.
To continue, Facebook has introduced measures to combat the spread of fake news related to COVID-19, such as promoting authoritative and professional sources. Which Facebook will also remove any harmful misinformation as well, depending on the content of the post. Since then, Facebook has also launched a misinformation reporting tool, allowing users to report any false information they come by.
Example
One example of Facebook’s misinformation policy in action is their handling of false claims related to COVID-19 vaccine. When the vaccine became a hot topic, the spread of misinformation about the vaccine also quickly spread throughout the platform. Facebook took action and removed posts that contained any false information and directing its users to a reliable sources like the World Health Organization.
Suggestions for improvement
To improve upon existing efforts, Facebook could consider increasing transparency around their fact-checking program and possibly provide context to users about that information is false steering them to a better understanding of what is misinformation and what isn’t. Facebook could also invest in even higher technology to detect and remove any misinformation, rather than relying on the users to report it.
Conclusion
In reviewing Facebook’s policies, it is clear that they are making efforts to curb any misinformation on their platform. However, there are still shortcomings. for example, Facebook has faced criticism for not doing much to prevent spread of political misinformation. Overall, the fact-checking program has been criticized for not being transparent enough in how it operates. However, each platform will have its own issues and at least Facebook is well aware of misinformation and is limiting false information as much as possible.
Twitter has also taken steps to process the combat of misinformation. This includes labeling misleading tweets and directing users to more reliable sources. Twitter has introduced new policies to address misinformation, which includes removing posts that contain false information.
Twitter’s Fact Checking Feature
Example
One example of Twitter’s misinformation policy is their handling of tweets from political leaders. When former president Trump tweeted possibly false information about the 2020 election results, Twitter labeled the tweet as misleading. This sparked a debate on the role of social media platforms moderating political speech.
Suggestions for improvement
Twitter could invest in a higher technology to detect any kind of misinformation. Like what is said for Facebook, a higher technology could be more reliable than the users having to report false information. It also could take away any kind of bias as well.
Conclusion
In reviewing Twitter’s efforts in curbing misinformation, it is evident that they are actively working to minimize misinformation on their platform. However, challenges still arise from being able to easily spread the misinformation by retweets and quoting tweets as well.
Social media platforms
Each platform involves a series of fact-checking tools to limit the spread of misinformation. However, both platforms still face criticism on false information. This brings attention that each platform should be using an even more advanced fact-checking tool and possibly limiting topics on the platforms as well. In the end, misinformation will always be an issue, but with bringing awareness to the users and providing information of media literacy, it could go a long way to limiting misinformation.
Social media platforms use multiple steps in order to limit misinformation. Fact checking programs, transparency, accountability, collaboration with experts, content flagging, and promoting media literacy, as well as critical thinking. Each platforms all contribute in those following strategies in order to keep misinformation from spreading. Each platform has challenges with different parts of it, but in the end, the goal is to limit misinformation. Overall, stopping the spread of misinformation is an important role in being able to engage on each social media platform safely.
Leave a Reply