Facebook and Fake News

A Facebook loophole allows users to create and spread fake news in Facebook Groups.

Fake news has been a divisive topic in our country over the past few years. The rapid spread of misinformation messes with people's minds, leading them to not know what is fact and what isn't. Facebook is a large part of the spread of fake news, and it's all thanks to a feature that they had removed 2 years ago: editable link previews. With this feature, users would be able to edit the image, headline, and description to whatever they wanted before they would post it. Facebook responded to this in 2017 in a statement, where they addressed the issue in the link editor and removed the feature entirely. Allowing the user to change a headline can heavily influence one's opinion.

With the advent of social media, many young people get their information primarily from apps like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Apple News. The instant access allows for them to quickly share any kind of news with their friends and family, who will then share it with more people until it spreads like wildfire. This is very dangerous today, as many of us tend to not look past the headline of a story. And if the headline happens to be false, than we have unknowingly shared "fake news" with the entire world. For more information, click here.

Comments

EOTO: Cord Cutting

The advent of streaming services has changed the way media is produced and distributed. Instead of watching scheduled programing on cable, many people watch whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want thanks to services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+ and Disney+. This has caused many to cancel their cable subscriptions and only pay for streaming services. This is known as cord cutting. Cord cutting is an effective way to save between $24-$100 on TV. With using streaming services, you can watch the channels and shows that you want to watch, eliminating channels that you don't use. Streaming also takes away most of the ads that you see when watching cable, reducing interruptions. Streaming allows you to watch whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. You aren't confined to your house waiting for your favorite show to come on. Cord cutting also does as its name says, it removes all the cords and hassle that come with cable tv.

Innovation: How the World would be Different without it

The eight values of free expression are all important in their own right. Our world would be completely different if they weren't protected. Out of the eight values of free expression, the one I believe is the most important is innovation. Innovation allows us to progress as a society. It is the reason why most of the things we have are the way they are. Let's go back to the first computers for examples. These were machines that were highly inefficient and took up entire rooms in secure facilities. Today, our computers and even our smart phones have 100x the processing power at a much smaller scale. These more efficient, design friendly machines allow our world to run the way it does. Without men like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, we would be relying on slow, inefficient machines to do important tasks for us instead of pulling out our phones. Another area that would be completely different is the gaming industry. I am an avid gamer. Some would say a little too avid. Innovat

EOTO: Media Consolidation and Market Monopolization

Have you ever wondered who controls our media and how much of it they control? In the early 80s, 90% of media in the United States was controlled by 50 companies. Today, the same 90% is controlled by 4. This is due to the process of media consolidation. Media consolidation is the process of networks owning other networks, controlling their properties and marketing them under one name. A good example of this is Disney. Today, everything is more or less under the influence of the media giant. Disney's umbrella consists of major names such as Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Miramax, Pixar, ABC, ESPN, and most recently 20th Century Fox. So you can be watching ABC News, waiting for an important story to be aired. But if Disney doesn't like that story, it won't air. The idea of Media consolidation created the term "Family of Networks". This term refers to networks having other networks to air their content on. ESPN is a prime example of this. They air sports and

Stuck Inside

Search This Blog