The Washington Post Tracked Facebook's Trending Topics For 3 Weeks, Found 5 Fake Stories and 3 Inaccurate Articles (washingtonpost.com) 113
An alarming number of people rely on social media, including and especially Facebook, for news. Over the past few months, we have seen how Facebook's Trending Topics feature is often biased, and moreover, how sometimes fake news slips through its filter. The Washington Post monitored the website for over three weeks and found that Facebook is still struggling to get its algorithm right. From the report: The Megyn Kelly incident was supposed to be an anomaly. An unfortunate one-off. A bit of (very public, embarrassing) bad luck. But in the six weeks since Facebook revamped its Trending system -- and a hoax about the Fox News Channel star subsequently trended -- the site has repeatedly promoted "news" stories that are actually works of fiction. As part of a larger audit of Facebook's Trending topics, the Intersect logged every news story that trended across four accounts during the workdays from Aug. 31 to Sept. 22. During that time, we uncovered five trending stories that were indisputably fake and three that were profoundly inaccurate (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). On top of that, we found that news releases, blog posts from sites such as Medium and links to online stores such as iTunes regularly trended. Facebook declined to comment about Trending on the record. "I'm not at all surprised how many fake stories have trended," one former member of the team that used to oversee Trending told the Post. "It was beyond predictable by anyone who spent time with the actual functionality of the product, not just the code."The Post adds that "there's no guarantee" that it was able to catch every hoax, since it looked at Trending feature only once every hour.
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
The feature is called "Trending", not "Factual News". If I photoshop a picture of my cat flying a jet and it goes viral... it's trending. That doesn't mean he's actually flying the jet.
Here's some news for you... Satire can be popular.
Re: Well... (Score:1, Insightful)
You know what's never trending? Hillarys crimes. It's because the media won't let it.
Re: Well... (Score:4, Informative)
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And here's some, seemingly, news for you .. Satire is not news.
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And yet no Hillary email stories (Score:1, Insightful)
Funny how that works, how she can commit crimes and the media chooses to ignore her evil ways.
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Holy Fuck.
RICHARD GOD DAMNED ARTITAGE IS THE LEAKER YOU ASSHOLE! [wikipedia.org]
You God Damned stupid fuck.
I know...you are only 12 and your mommy is babysitting you with the computer
Fucking stupid asshole.
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...just wow.
The only "criminal act" with regards to your post is your misrepresentation of facts and documented history.
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I'm starting to think that it's Facebook Demographics, running wild. Half of the "suggested stories" I get have malicious popups, 90% have the same addverts for pure click-bait sites and 3/4 are blatant plagiarism. For a while I thought some kind of liberal conspriacy, then I found my Liberal freinds thought it was a conservative conspiracy and realized it was just predatory marketers screwing both. A surprising percentage of the sponsored posts on facebook have set off my antivirus.
Facebook is struggling t
Vice Versa (Score:1)
I wonder what a similar analysis on the Washington Post would show.
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They're both (the Washington Post and Facebook) doing better than top two US candidates.
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Both true... for some couple named Bill C and Hillary, and some couple named Obama, just not the famous ones.
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Hillary is personally responsible for the Samsung Note explosions.
The DNC created the Zika virus using genetic engineering and released it on Republican retirement central, aka Florida.
One of Bill Clinton's secret babies is the leader of ISIS.
The Republican leaders who have abandoned, ignored or rejected Trump are being paid off by Putin
Hillary's first official act as President would be to appoint Barak Obama as Ultra Supreme Over-Justice of the Supreme Court. This
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Let's get this party rolling .....
The Republican leaders who have abandoned, ignored or rejected Trump are being paid off by Putin...
BS, everybody knows George Soros paid them off so his sock-puppet Hillary wins, Putin only likes Trump on an "Enemy of my Enemy" basis.
And how about the Washington Post? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And how about the Washington Post? (Score:5, Funny)
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In this case the question is quite relevant. The Washington Post is slamming Facebook for publishing false or inaccurate stories; it's in their business interest to drive people away from FB and back to "real" media outlets. So why not ask if the Post is really better than FB?
The question is also very timely. The Washington Post has been publishing a constant stream of Trump-bashing stories and a constant stream of Clinton excuses. They are in no position to be tossing bricks at Facebook's news feed.
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How about a nice cup of STFU? The kindergarten defence (Steve did it too!) does not work, not even when you're in kindergarten. Seeing supposedly grown-ups use the same tactics is depressing, it means they have literally not learned a thing ever, not even back in kindergarten. Makes it kind of clear they're just worthless trash who never have anything worthwhile to say.
Facebook can't compete with the Washington Post's history of fake stories, what with Janet Cooke and all.
Of course, neither of them even come close to The New York Times, where Jayson Blair was a piker compared to Walter Duranty's whitewashing of Stalin's kulak genocide [wikipedia.org].
So WHO needs to STFU?
That would be YOU.
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I love the juvenile attempts to fact check and record correct by the US media. You can't make this shit up.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/785299709342654465
Wot? (Score:3)
Stupid, fake news and racist trolling trends on Facebook?
Say it ain't so.
SEO (Score:2)
Ironic (Score:1, Interesting)
Kind of ironic coming from WashPo which basically has become a PR outlet for the DNC
Says Hillary Propaganda arm Washington Post (Score:2, Informative)
Hillary has created the most effective propaganda arm ever made.
Hillary Propaganda Divisions ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN, NYT, Bumberg, Huffy Post, NewYanker, Politicon, Politifalsehoods, Last Twit Tonight,Washington Post
https://theintercept.com/2016/... [theintercept.com]
http://www.americanthinker.com... [americanthinker.com]
http://dcleaks.com/emails/cApR... [dcleaks.com]
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I saw you linking those articles the other day, and read the Intercept one. The leak doesn't prove that the entire mainstream media is in bed with Hillary, following her every command. It shows that one journalist would reliably write articles on provided topics about Hillary, and not always in a completely favorable light. It also says that Hillary had an off-the-record get-together with various members of the press, before she announced her bid for the presidency. Probably, the journalists wanted to know
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I saw you linking those articles the other day, and read the Intercept one. The leak doesn't prove that the entire mainstream media is in bed with Hillary, following her every command.
Maybe I can shed a little light here, as a professional journalist who often talks off the record with people in positions of power.
The question you should be asking is not whether so-and-so has a friendly relationship with Candidate X. The question is, what is the effect of that relationship on their reporting? And lest you think that I'm siding with the reporters on this one... don't. I see a far-too-common tendency among reporters to shy away from criticising people with whom they have a relationship. I
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If you organization has "American", "America's", or "Patriot" in its name or in how it describes itself, I'm automatically skeptical. Those aren't qualities you can just lay claim to. They come from how the rest of us see you.
Uhh Rupert Murdoch would like to have a word (Score:2)
...give credit where it is due. Love it or hate it FNC has perfected the art of propaganda in the US media.
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Your giving her too much credit, it takes a village after all; she just fine-tuned an existing infra-structure.
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So the Paid Hillary Trolls are on Slashdot now.
Damned Shame.
Re:Says Hillary Propaganda arm Washington Post (Score:4, Informative)
You really are repeating the echo camber of propaganda that hillary has created and didn't read anything. I posted a story for Glenn Greenwald and you called in right wing. You are fucking insane if Glenn Greenwald is right wing now.
The media is one of the strongest weapons in showing the world the devastating effects of corruption and shining a light on those who would use their entrusted power for personal gain. An independent and free media is a cornerstone of democracy and a crucial component of a healthy governance system.
Glenn Greenwald( Pulitzer prize winner) hates trump and hillary both but at least he is ethical.
Glenn Greenwald found ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN, NYT,Bumberg,HuffyPost,NewYanker,Politico, New Yanker taking marching orders from the Clinton Campaign.
https://theintercept.com/2016/... [theintercept.com]
Clinton has corrupted this and turned it into a propaganda arm for her campaign.
This should scare the hell out of the american people if they know their history.
I was voting for Hillary until I found this out it is worse than anything Trump has done.
Trump makes we want to vomit but he would last 4 years and it would clean out the political system a bit. Think off it as a cleanse, nasty going down but it cleans out all the crap.
I am voting Trump, not because I like him, he makes me vomit, but because the press will do their job, to find government corruption. We will have a health democracy with Trump. If Trump goes 2 dollars over on expense report it will be front page news for a week. Hillary nope, she will tell them what to write. Trump will last 4 years but the crap will be gone.
Also here are some more fun ones.
Funny how they came out yesterday saying wikileaks was propaganda, notice how all of the above repeated it, like good little hillary youth.
https://theintercept.com/2016/... [theintercept.com]
Washington Post shilling for Hillary.
http://www.americanthinker.com... [americanthinker.com]
Hillary Clinton public and private opinion : wall street and lobbyist ended slavery She lies about lying. That what she we actually saying. Read actual leak, not her lies.
Nope it is a Fox anchor. You guys will be crying about the moderator.
Obama likes to expose himself.Go check out his 'Agent' as they call it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Solution (Score:3)
I am glad that I am not caught out by this. I go to serious, bona fide news websites to get my news. They are always objective, accurate, impartial, don't put some slant on stories, and above all, do not ignore some stories that I think are important.
So let's see how many whooshes this piece of sarcasm creates...
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I like slashdot for news. If someone posts lies, a slew of people call "bullshit". Of course a slew of people also call "bullshit" when they post the truth. :p
Bogiousity Astounds.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Facebook is entertainment, not news (Score:3, Interesting)
Facebook is entertainment, not news
Facebook is entertainment, not news
Facebook is entertainment, not news
(/. won't let me repeat that as many times as I had wanted to...)
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TBF, most news is also entertainment.
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If it were news, it would be boring.
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It's not about what it's designed for, it's about how it's used. And people are increasingly treating whatever trends at Facebook as actual news.
Facebook is news if enough of the population treats it as such.
It's like a mirror (Score:1, Informative)
It would only be news if WaPo ran an expose on their biased reporting, see
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/10/11/wikileaks-eilperin-warning-podesta/
Everyone knows faceplant's news is crap but WaPo isn't that much better in terms of integrity.
Wait. (Score:3)
Summary is exaggerating (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate to defend Facebook here, but if you RTFA, you will see that some of the supposed "fake" and "inaccurate" articles were actually spoofs. People posted them because they were funny. That's like stopping by The Onion and complaining that the news is biased and inaccurate.
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Which is fine, right up until the point where I go to news.google.com and start seeing Onion headlines there sourced directly from the Onion.
Which didn't happen.
If you're labeling it "news", you really should be making some rudimentary effort to filter out that kind of material.
They didn't label it news. The summary says it was labeled "Trending Topics."
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Which is fine, right up until the point where I go to news.google.com and start seeing Onion headlines there sourced directly from the Onion.
Which didn't happen.
If you're labeling it "news", you really should be making some rudimentary effort to filter out that kind of material.
They didn't label it news. The summary says it was labeled "Trending Topics."
Unless the ongoing, undying topic to "trend" is lying, Facebook should start labeling their bullshit generator what it is.
An 'alarming number of people' ARE DUMB (Score:1)
Seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)
...anybody that chooses Facebook as their primary news source deserves all they get, including ridicule.
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Yeah I'm VERY disillusioned with the (total lack of) integrity of ALL the mainstream US media.
I mean its always been known that the big media are biassed, MSNBC, Fox, WaPo etc have always made that clear, however this election has proven that ALL the mainstream media has absolutely no moral scruples and have all completely and utterly sold out to the left.
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You're right. I guess my real frustration is with (apparently the vast majority of) the sheeple that can't see through this shit, even though its blatant.
Ok (Score:1)
I know that pilling up on Facebook is the new trend now, but just so people know, that number can't be much different from several news portals, blogs and other social networks that are being used as news sources nowadays.
Facebook shouldn't be considered a source for reliable news, but several other portals also shouldn't in the very same way.
Arguably, traditional media is just on the same page, as they'll often use Internet sources for their news too nowadays.
So, in the end, the recommendation stays the sa
Washington Post envious of Facebook Trending (Score:3)
Washington Post monitors Facebook Trending for three weeks and find it is working better than the Washington Post. Journalist scramble to discredit system out of fear of being replaced.
Control (Score:2)
5 out of how many? (Score:2)
An absolute number like "5" or "8" is meaningless. Even the most serious newspapers get hoaxed or lie sometimes.
The only thing I found in TFA is this:
Our results shouldn’t be taken as conclusive: Since Facebook personalizes its trends to each user, and we tracked results only during work hours, there’s no guarantee that we caught every hoax. But the observation that Facebook periodically trends fake news still stands — if anything, we’ve underestimated how often it occurs.
You said it : inconclusive. What is important is the ratio. If you reviewed 20 articles and 5 are fake, that's horrible. If it is 5 out of 500, it needs improvement but it is not so bad.
Except the 9/11 story wasn't fake (Score:1)
I believe it linked to a story that linked to the real scientific evidence of 9/11
THIS is what had the washington post brainwashed misinformed up in arms.. the truth actually trending, instead of some useless fluff story or propaganda.
What the headline should have said (Score:1)
facebook? (Score:1)
LePereZg:~$ apropos facebook
facebook: nothing appropriate.