Google: Fighting the Good Fight in the Valley of Truth
February 27, 2019
Readers of DarkCyber (formerly Beyond Search) know that I am skeptical about identifying and eradicating false news. Humans have a difficult time figuring out what’s “right” and “accurate” even when the “facts” are presumably “correct.” Convert this type of “judgment” into a series of statements and the decision remains a bit, how shall I phrase it, a low precision, low accuracy process.
One view is that Google and Facebook are drowning in fake news. The tech giants are routinely chastised in the media and on Capitol Hill for failing to maintain customer trust over fake news and privacy. So, the search king has taken it upon itself to fight these fights. But, is it enough? We gathered information from a recent Engadget story, “Google Explains How It’s Fighting Fake News.”
According to the story:
“Google is not immune to the scourge of fake news that has dominated headlines over the last few years. The company has taken various steps in fighting the problem — from partnering with fact-checking networks to launching the $300 million Google News Initiative. Now it’s expanded its transparency efforts further by detailing at length the steps it takes to fight disinformation across its services.”
DarkCyber sometimes entertains the thought that well informed humans or really smart software could step in and address this challenge.
We don’t doubt that Google means well, but we are also suspicious as to whether the online ad giant can do more than generate online advertising revenue despite the firm’s effort to convince people about its prowess in non advertising domains.
Can humans handle the job? News has surfaced that Facebook is causing psychic stress among its global team of fake news fighters, hate speech identifiers, and interesting content reviewers.
The FTC, according to the Verge, took action against Cure Encapsulations. According to the online news service, the company:
has agreed to never again make a “weight-loss, appetite-suppression, fat-blocking, or disease-treatment claims for any dietary supplement, food, or drug” unless the company has “competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing” to support its claims. The settlement also prohibits the company from misrepresenting endorsements, including whether a review or testimonial is from a real customer who purchased the product.
Liver failure and worse can result from “fake” information.
And where are the human editors? What about smart software?
The human editors are under stress and complaining. The software chugs along—ineffectually.
State of play: “Fake news” is a challenge.\
Patrick Roland, February 27, 2019
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