Want to Purge Fake News? Try Crowdsourcing
Removing misinformation is too big a job for any single company. Facebook and others should enlist users to help.
Some people will buy anything.
Photographer: Sion Touhig/Getty Images
A recent New York Times investigation described how Facebook has bungled its response to the misinformation that has proliferated on its platform. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in an interview that the problems his company is grappling with “are not issues that any one company can address.” He’s right: The problem of fake news has become too big for any social network to address on its own. Instead, the company should call on its users for help though crowdsourcing.
Misinformation is rife on Facebook and other social networks: Russia attempted to interfere in the U.S. midterm elections, the Saudis employ hundreds of trolls to attack critics, fake activists in Bangladesh have been promoting nonexistent U.S. women's marches to sell merchandise, there was a huge disinformation campaign during last month’s general election in Brazil, and fake news has triggered episodes of violence in countries including India, Myanmar and Germany.