People's Daily Huan Xiang
"Digital bandits." Not long ago, the British parliamentary committee on digitization, culture, media and sports described Facebook in a report. The 108-page report, which has been investigated for 18 months, argues that Facebook spreads fake news and shirks its responsibility for content regulation as a platform, and calls for strict regulation through legislation.
Social platforms such as Facebook, Alphabet Inc-CL C and Twitter have always attracted a lot of attention in the discussion of fake news. The Reuters Institute of Journalism has observed such a trend: "Social platforms are no longer neutral, and the ensuing fake news is like a gopher game for the platform." Fake news is moving to a more closed platform, which makes it more difficult to manage and track. "
Relying on the open and shared technical architecture, the social platform not only gathers information on the Internet, but also builds a connection channel for the suppliers and demanders of information. According to a report from Columbia University School of Journalism, there are more than 40 social platforms and instant messaging applications around the world that segment the market for news publishers to connect to audiences. The agency's survey of 14 news organizations shows that on average, each distributes content through 21 different platforms. Obviously, no matter how the social platform positions itself, it has a significant impact on the dissemination of information and even the development of the news industry. As the Global Science magazine article said: "because of the huge scale of social media, it has been difficult to ignore their impact on today's society and public opinion."
On the social platform, the decentralized communication mechanism not only expands the public's right of expression, but also breeds false information and false news. Through website traffic statistics, some foreign researchers have found that social networking platforms introduce 10.1% of the traffic to traditional mainstream news sites, but 41.8% to fake news sites. Another study showed that 22.1% of articles were fake news in the first three seconds of opening a Facebook page. Everyone on the social platform can have a voice, and there are many potential sources of fake news; the socialization and algorithmic communication mechanism of the social platform makes the fake news spread quickly and widely; behind the fake news with ulterior motives, it is the stakeholders who promote it. These have led to a flood of fake news on social platforms.
As the "reservoir" and "aqueduct" of information, social platforms are duty-bound to crack down on fake news. "Today, social media enjoys the dominance of the media industry, but they do not want to be regulated or take on the responsibility of investigating the truth carried by traditional media for decades. Most importantly, they want the number of users to continue to increase in order to ensure the growth of corporate profits. " The report from Wharton Business School in the United States is thought-provoking.
"in the flow of information, there are some gatekeepers, and only the information that meets the group norms or the value standards of the gatekeepers can enter the communication channel." The view of American social psychologist Lu Yin is enlightening for dealing with fake news on social platforms. Fake news on social platforms emerges one after another, which shows that its "gatekeeper" does not play a full role, and there is a risk of weakening. The development of technology is endless, and the evolution of the media has sprung up, but in the ever-changing, the core elements of truth and the core of social values can not be missing. To deal with fake news, social media needs to fully play the role of "gatekeeper".
"the world is in a pocket." Some people describe the convenience that new media brings to people's lives. The world is getting smaller, but social platforms have more and more responsibilities. Social platforms should be responsible for providing real information to the public, maintaining the order and rationality of the platform, and promoting people's intellectual leap.