OUGD505: Fake news

When considering when distribution of fake news, as apposed to verbally communicating false stories, an element of personal connection has been removed through the official format of print or online media. When speaking face to face, telling fake news is essentially lying- a terminal sin society classes as wrong; body language, tone of voice, eye contact and other aspects of one to one communication inform our overall trustability of the individual, therefore the credibility of the information. By its title fake 'news' is, 1) something important the viewer needs to know, and 2) lies. However, we can question if by repackaging it and repurposing it into a legitimate format, a newspaper tabloid is born. 

'Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to tackle fake news' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38181158

There was a plug in created by technologist Daniel Sieradski, also known as BS Detector which flags up questionable websites on Facebook and Twitter. The plug-in has appeared in dozens of news feeds, leading some to think it was an official Facebook feature due to the integrated appropriation of design, however it appears Facebook is currently blocking links to the site and not allowing it to feature anymore, suggesting this strategy could be an unsuccessful method of solving the problem.

Questioning the functionality and accuracy of the plug in, we can wonder if the 'fake news' was actually just a mis-flag or even just an opinion.The BS Detector uses a list of fake news sources as its reference point, and it can be added to Chrome and Mozilla browsers and when it spots a potentially false story and flags it with a red banner reading "this website is considered a questionable source.".

But if we have a flagger on everything then surely one day we'll end up in a fully censored society, which I don't think is constructive or healthy for progression of an evolved species.