
Ask HN: How would YOU stop the spread of fake news? - markhall
By now, we all know that social media sites have been guilty of allowing the spread of fake news (likely unknowingly). While many of these same companies are trying to find a fix for this, I wonder if HN&#x27;ers have innovative ideas on how to do this. What creative solutions&#x2F;ideas do you have that could stop fake news from spreading (on social media AND elsewhere)?
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throwaway420
This "fake news" meme is as transparent as McDonalds and Burger King getting
together and labeling all competing restaurants as "fake food".

Don't people understand that you're hearing this "fake news" meme every day
because the dying corporate mainstream media industry is trying to discredit
the independent media competition who is eating their lunch? Breitbart,
Drudge, Infowars, and hundreds of smaller media outlets, YouTube Channels,
Twitter accounts, and the like in many cases are getting as much or more
attention than the old media and siphoning off clicks and ad revenue.

The dying old guard is fighting for its life and trying to use its last
gasping breath to put in place social media policies, social engineering,
search engine manipulation, and technical solutions to try and smother their
competition.

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sheraz
I know this will come off as sarcastic, but I honestly mean it -- we should be
teaching people to think critically.

The more that we outsource higher order thinking to machines (and badly I
might add), the worse this problem will get.

We should be finding better ways to get more readers to think critically.

I don't this this is a tech-solve, but rather a human one.

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allendoerfer
This way it always ends with "Well, schools have to teach that, too". While
critical thinking surely is something schools should teach, for the
foreseeable future there will be an underclass and we should take some
intermediate steps.

I think the root of the problem is that attention equals money and you get the
most attention with shocking news or extreme viewpoints. There are some media
types less dependent on money, which seem to work better. I think we should
think about ways to expand their audience.

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elmerfud
"Fake News" seems to be the politically correct term for censorship. Why does
no one frame their question in this way?

So, my answer is I don't stop it because this is modern day book burning,
nothing else.

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bsvalley
How much would you be willing to pay HN'ers for giving you awesome ideas?

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allfou
This is a huge business opportunity for new startups. Of course everyone will
share their awesome ideas and creative solutions here :)

