How games can help us spot fake news

With tech companies like Facebook introducing new features, and governments around the world considering laws to disrupt the spread of fake news, games are also being made to help spot fake news.

The University of Cambridge developed Bad News as an educational tool, helping people understand how fake news spread. Players are encouraged to pick provocative and clickbait headlines to garner attention and grow their imaginary social media following.

The game teaches techniques used by fake news purveyors in an attempt to ‘demistify and illuminate’ fake news. By learning these techniques, players can learn to recognise signs such as fake profiles, and not be influenced by fake news.

As we’ve covered before, while laws and changes are great, helping people engage in critical thinking and fact checking to stay as informed citizens is still the most effective way to combat disinformation. Drawing from Inoculation theory, Bad News confers resistance against fake news by giving you insights into the various tactics fake news-mongers use. If you can recognise it, you can resist it.

You can play the game at Bad News, and for more information check out the developers page.

-Maria

Sport in Australia: The AFL’s fight against Fake News

The Australian Football League is urging playing to call out ‘fake news’ in AFL media.

As celebrities in Australia, players of the AFL are under constant media scrutiny for their behavior, attitudes and actions on and off the field. Fake News surrounding their professional careers and their personal lives can bear a heavy toll on a player’s mental health. In the 2017 season Travis Cloke, Tom Boyd and Alex Fasolo all took time out from the game because of mental health struggles, partially attributing the decision to what they had seen on social media.

The AFL Players Association has encouraged players to respectfully combat inaccurate stories by calling out factual errors or what they considered to be unfair reporting. While players were discouraged to contact journalists directly, avenues were given to them to voice their side of the story to internal media outlet.

CEO Gillon McLachlan believes players would be better off staying away from social media all together. Is this a realistic request in the modern digital age?

This is just one of the many examples of real-life consequences that fake news can bring.

-Jake

Fake News: From Democracy to Dictatorship

What do Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and U.S. President Donald Trump all have in common?

They label unfavourable press “Fake News”

The term Fake News was popularized by U.S. President Donald Trump as a way to attack and dismiss unfavourable press coverage. Both the term and the associated tactic of its implementation have since been adopted by authoritarian leaders the world over.

Attacking the press is not new to dictatorships. In fact, control of national media is a pillar authoritarian control exercised by infamous governments including the NAZI party in Germany.

Freedom of expression is a principle of democracy, which stipulates the importance of a free press. The use of a dictatorial technique by a democratic nation raises questions over the integrity of its office.

See below 5 examples of world leaders who now use Fake News to discredit the press:

1) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Quote: “You can forge anything these days. We are living in a fake-news era.”

2) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Quote: The media “spread lots of false versions, lots of lies. This is what we call ‘fake news’ today, isn’t it? The era of post-truth.”

3) U Kyaw San Hla, Burma State Officer

Quote: “There is no such thing as Rohingya. It is fake news.”

4) Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis

Quote: “I am not saying that all are fake pictures, but some of them are and there have been a lot of alternative facts and fake news.”

5) U.S. President Donald Trump

Quote: “You areFake News”

-Jake

 

Facebook’s Fight against Fake News

Facebook recently announced that it would trial a ‘context’ button that would help its users identify fake news.

Source: Truly Deeply

Following Mark Zuckerberg’s questioning by the US Congress, Facebook launched a campaign to address concerns against data misuse and the spread of misinformation. The new ‘context’ button is their latest move in the fight against fake news.

The feature, which rolled out in the US and UK, will make its way to Australian users. The button will appear on posts, and will give details about the publisher (such as their Wikipedia page), what posts the publisher has previously shared, and which friends have shared the article. In cases where there is no Wikipedia entry, it will indicate that information is unavailable, which will also be helpful context.

So how helpful is this?

Giving people quick and easy access to contextual information that can help them evaluate articles is definitely a step in the right direction. However, Facebook’s personalised newsfeed acts as a filter bubble, or echo chamber. For example, if I believed in aliens, and Facebook knows this because I’ve like a bunch of pages and posts about aliens. My entire newsfeed will reflect what I like, and that context button won’t matter because I’ve already decided on what I believe in before I’ve even clicked on that information.

*X-Files theme intensifies*

Whatever we already see on our newsfeed is information that is already tailored for us, and a context button might not be all that helpful if we live in an echo chamber.

 

 

-Maria

 

Fake News Laws: The Big Test for Social Media

The war on fake news online and the slow progress of Facebook and Google have led some countries to turn to the legal system for a solution.

Notably, various groups in Singapore are awaiting government report on potential Fake News Laws. The recommended new legislation would provide the government with “powers to swiftly disrupt the spread and influence of online falsehoods” and to prevent people from gaining monetary value for misleading clickbait articles.  It calls for criminal penalties for those who meet a threshold of “serious harm such as election interference, public disorder, and the erosion of trust in public institutions.”

But fighting misinformation with the law is tricky as concerns have been raised over free speech and censorship if these laws were to take place. However, the counter-argument is that these measures will be to ensure freedom of speech can be meaningfully exercised that is not drowned out by fake content.

In fact, not only have discussions emerged in Singapore but earlier this year Malaysia successfully passed fake news laws. This encompassed penalizing not only those behind fake news but also anyone who maliciously spreads this material. This faced huge international criticism due to the controversial debate of freedom of speech and those guilty faced up to six years in prison and fines of up to $130,000. Currently, the new Government is working to repeal the law.

Nevertheless, if fake news legislation becomes a universal reality, it should still be accompanied with increased fact-checking and investigative journalism and building the digital literacy and critical thinking skills of the population.

How do you rate Fake News Laws as a solution? Do you think having legislation on fake news is an effective solution? Or do you think the sacrifice of freedom of speech is too great of a consequence?

Head to our Facebook poll on our FlakeOnFake page to vote!

Cecilia

 

 

Wait…there’s a vaccine for fake news?

“Scientists develop fake news ‘vaccine’ to combat climate change myths” 

How is this possible? Well, it seems that in the debate of climate change scientists have seemingly found a cure against the spread of climate change myths.

The article reads “We wanted to see if we could find a ‘vaccine’ by pre-emptively exposing people to a small amount of the type of misinformation they might experience. A warning that helps preserve the facts.”

A study was done where individuals were subjected to 2 facts- a well-known climate change fact and a fake myth. It was found that when presented consecutively, ‘fake news’ dominated people’s minds.

However, when presented with an “inoculation” — where people were introduced to distortion tactics used by certain groups — as well as a small dose of misinformation and the fact, opinions stayed closer to the truth despite exposure to fake news.

“Conflicting messages can leave them feeling back at square one.”

This is an optimistic approach as it lacks significant factors of consideration- i.e. how do these ‘scientists’ control how news is consumed? How do they know readers will be able to be exposed to small doses of information and facts?

Nevertheless, this is still a good step in the battle against fake news. What do you think?

-Cecilia

And the Oscars goes to this Guy…

Covering natural disasters has always been a ritual for news. One particular coverage by Weather Channel reporter, Mike Seidel, has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

So dramatic! Dude from the weather channel bracing for his life, as 2 dudes just stroll past. #HurricaneFlorence pic.twitter.com/8FRyM4NLbL

— Tony scar. (@gourdnibler) September 14, 2018

In this video, Seidel is seen struggling against the winds and bracing ‘for his life’. Meanwhile, two guys in the background casually stroll by.

 

You’re doing amazing, sweetie

Source: metro.co.uk

Sensationalist images like this proves that fake news isn’t just limited to the political sphere.  Sensationalism sells, and the media knows it. Viewers are motivated by the pleasure of an emotional impact.

While videos like this are easy to spot and roast endlessly till we find the next cringe meme, some are harder to spot. That’s why an informed audience is important in combatting the rise of fake news. We need to equip ourselves with the tools and skills necessary to know what information is worth absorbing and what needs to be overlooked.

-Maria