Bengaluru: With fake news reports repeatedly making waves in the social media and millennials finding it difficult to judge the authenticity of what they share online, web giant Facebook has come out with a 10 point guideline as part of its efforts to help users fight the cause. With full page advertisements on all leading dailies and repetitive posts appearing on individual timelines on Friday, the tech-savvy population of the city felt that the step taken by the Facebook is apt and timely.
“The Facebook’s move to eradicate false claims and news by educating users how to avoid such posts is something that was needed. Next up, action should be taken by the web giant to avoid corporations exaggerating facts and misleading people to their benefit,” said Jisa Mathew, a social media marketer.
Prof Parinitha Shinde, a mass communication lecturer, said that the action taken by the Facebook can be seen as their latest measure at damage control after what happened over the past year, starting from the events leading up to the 2016 US Presidential elections. “With Zuckerberg first refusing to accept that the Facebook as a news carrier to later reverting the company’s policies by hiring engineers to write algorithms to help users distinguish real and fake news, the social media giant has had a bumpy ride over the issue till now,” she asserted. She said that the latest campaign to sensitise people on what to believe online can also be seen as a step taken by the company to further their brand-building exercise at the global level.
The advertisement, aimed at reaching out to the average user, includes ten steps, titled ‘Tips for spotting false news’. The pointers range from users being asked to be sceptical of headlines to encouraging critical thinking about stories being put out on the platform. “Together, we can limit the spread of false news,” the ad summed up.
Network engineer Hitesh Pol suggests that a user-based system would bring things under control to an extent. “An effective system to flag fake news posts should be developed in a way that an alert is automatically displayed when such posts appear on an individual timeline. It should be similar to how user-created databases are being used to identify spam callers. Such a system will help users and the Facebook get an ‘authentic’ tag on news reports,” he said.
Experts said that other web platforms should also consider and lead similar campaigns for the welfare of the user community, lately known as digital natives. Web giants should work hand-in-hand with the large amount of data they own to benefit the users and advertisers.
Pointing out to the transformation of social media platforms over the last decade, Prof Shinde, who specialises in web and new media journalism, asserted, “From being a basic info sharing site to a portal that curates news, this step taken by the Facebook should be considered by other platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, as well and encouraged them to form come out with sterner policies.”
