
Fake news is not the only problem - rdl
https://points.datasociety.net/fake-news-is-not-the-problem-f00ec8cdfcb#.n616r44gm
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emodendroket
It's not even the primary problem. I can't believe the incredible outsize
attention this is receiving, as though 2016 were the first time people were
passing around false or misleading information online.

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rdl
Yeah, fake news is the easiest problem to solve in this space; lots of the
other issues are much more insidious or technically/socially challenging to
solve.

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grenoire
The only thing about fake news that is surprising is that the attention it's
receiving now only started growing very recently. I am confused so as to why
there's a surge of discussion regarding the topic.

Is it the election results that made it worth discussing and addressing?

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grzm
I don't know if it were the results per se, but that likely hasn't helped. The
level of discourse of the campaigns, coupled with the increased use of social
media by both populations and the campaigns increased the exposure of click-
bait and webspam and such, increasing its exposure.

~~~
grenoire
My question then is if we actually passed the critical mass of fake news that
only now warrants all these blog posts and mainstream media discourse.

~~~
grzm
Look how much discussion there is about fakenews/webspam here on HN. It's a
popular topic. As for blog posts and media, they're following the popularity
as well in part to cash in on the traffic they'll see due to people's interest
on the topic.

I'm not sure what your premise is. Is it that this is a topic now _only_
because of the election results? That it's a hot topic now because of some
media conspiracy because of the election results? That the fakenews meme has
been planted because of the election results?

Those are all potentially interesting premises which could be researched and
tested.

I think we can agree that some news topics are faddish. For fakenews/webspam,
the trigger that kicked it off is the election.

Here's what I'm positing:

We have a much larger number of people using social media since the last
election (2012).

People are spending a much larger amount of time online engaged with social
media since the last election.

People are getting a much larger percentage of their news online in general
and social media in particular since the last election.

Campaigns have spent much more on online advertising since the last election.

Online advertising in general is much increased since the last election.

All of these things contribute to an environment where people are going to be
sensitive to news about online news and advertising.

Even before the election, I'm sure you can find examples of people complaining
about fake articles, both related to the campaign and otherwise. As an
example, Ryan Holiday's "Trust Me I'm Lying" was published in 2013.

This all makes for a great environment for a meme such as fakenews to take
off. With all of the other increased politicization and polarization
accompanying the election, it's unlikely that it needed much of a push. People
were already complaining about untrue claims, cherry-picking, and the like.

All of these things could likely be easily backed up, but I don't think
they're likely to be particularly contentious. Any you disagree with?

I don't know if any additional nefarious push needs to happen.

What do you think?

