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Friday 30 December 2016

NDM #31: Moral panic over fake news hides the real enemy – the digital giants


To summarise the guardian article, the moral panic caused by fake news comes from the fact that democratic capitalism has been used throughout the internet with political leaders such as Facebook and Twitter which have more control of how information is delivered to people around the world than the governments themselves. The problem will be difficult to fix due to the imbalance of 'actual leaders' being involved with media institutions and this is what causes a panic. When the source of the problem has not been found or resolved, society and figures of power will use a method of distraction such as the 'Russian influence' on the US Presidential Election. Whenever proof of this matter has been found or not, it does not mend the actual real problem but media publications will not contribute or give enough effort to fake news.

I can strongly believe that a social outbreak such as 'fake news' is a money printer for everyone else that is not effected because user interaction will be at its peak since it's such a controversial topic (something that makes or breaks viral campaigns in today's online society). Furthermore, Google's search engine market control of 98% represents another revenue stream that is not going to be impacted by any government agency any time soon. According to Adweek.com, Google's advertisement revenue in Q4 2016 (September to December) has had an increase of 21% to $19 billion! And this increase was most definitely heavily influenced by Donald Trump's outrageous comments and fake news articles.

To conclude, I do believe this issue can NOT be fixed ever. Fake news will circulate for as long the internet exists. Due to the freedom of information and the internet being unregulated (impossible) as a whole, I believe the only action that can be taken is to reduce the output and have Google put a 'proof of source material' before these articles have access to their search engine.


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