Fake news is now considerd to be the number one threat to democracy.
The latest crisis arising from the activities of propagators of fake news – a blend of rumor, propaganda and plot theory – has shaken the world. Fake news is now considered to be the number one threat to democracy across the world. Although fake news has always existed, the rise of social media has exploded its capabilities and the speed at which it spreads. Social media platforms constitute a vital tool for dissemination of important information, but recent experience has demonstrated that they can be used to spread less-than-useful or flat-out falsehoods to great effect.
We currently live in a reality where social platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been weaponized by propagandists. And when these propagandists choose to unleash their weapons on developing countries, such as Ethiopia, the effect is far worse by orders of magnitude. Having large numbers of misinformed people in combination with grossly understaffed and poorly equipped law enforcement can produce a cocktail of devastating results. This is the present situation and someone has to do something about it. Although we do not have an absolute solution from the outset, we think it is important to start addressing the issue and if we can save just one life, it would have been worth it.
To confront this issue, we intend to launch a platform that we hope can serve as a fact-checking platform for the general population. Having undertaken a study of the issues, we identified the core drivers of the problem. And have drafted what we refer to as our Combat Strategy - a breakdown of the key points of our proposed solution. Considering the depth of the challenge, we recognize that this draft is far from being the ideal solution. In order to improve it, we are organizing a brainstorming session with a select group of people whose perspectives on the problem we consider valuable.
Thank you for being willing to be a part of this and to help you prepare adequately for the brainstorming session, this document will provide a brief description of the following aspects of our proposed solution:
We will appreciate your thoughts on these over the brainstorming session.
Among the many drivers of the issue, the following are the primary ones:
These are social media accounts set up by internet bots (robots) or by real people using false identities.
False information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news.
Difficulties in verifying the credibility of news sources.
Publication of subjective opinion as objective news in order to change reader's perception
A subliminal message designed to pass beneath the conscious level of the reader's perception
Irrelevant or inappropriate messages.
If we intend to make the slightest dent in the problem, there are two critical questions to be answered.
Facebook, YouTube and other major tech companies have elected to go with the option of using third-party fact checkers as their core strategy for fighting this menace. However, considering the size of the problem, and the fact that it will be hard to get the funds to pay third-party fact-checkers in a developing country, we do not consider this strategy to be very effective.
Although it comes with its own peculiar challenges, we believe that a crowd-sourcing approach to facts-checking is a better way to go. We have, therefore, decided to build our own crowd-sourcing platform where members of the public can collaborate to report fake news and explain twisted reporting to the rest of the populace.
This is the biggest question we need to answer; we cannot repeat what other platforms have done and expect a better outcome. This is why we are rethinking the standard approach to developing a platform and arrived at a unique concept for this one.
We have examined each of the six core drivers individually and come up with a solution for each one. They are listed below.
These are the preliminary ideas for addressing each of the major challenges.
These are social media accounts set up by internet bots (robots) or by real people using false identities.
The majority of fake account creation happens via automated bots. If we take away the registration form altogether, there would be no way for bots to register. Registration of new members would only be through referral.
This is a price we will have to pay to increase the security of the platform
Fake accounts thrive because their creators know that there is no way to trace those accounts back to them. However, if registrations are done only through referral, it is possible to trace backwards and find the real person behind the fake account. To discourage this behavior, the referral tree will be open to the public and anyone can see where a fake account originated from. If users are aware that accounts can be traced back to them, they are less likely to use fake accounts.
Difficulties in verifying the credibility of news sources.
In the same way that we refer to a person's credit score to evaluate their financial credibility; we can introduce the same concept to the internet world. We will use account scores to assess the trustworthiness of a user.
We intend to develop a set of rules for rewarding and penalizing people.
Again, this has to be crowd-sourced; people with trustworthiness scores up to a certain threshold can give or take away points.
These need to be identified.
Definitely! Although we are not sure to what extent they should be employed.
Refers to false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news. Or flat out irrelevant or inappropriate messages.
This is where the power of crowd-sourcing really comes to play. Trustworthy people will have the power to report and hide fake posts.
Achieving this will be a huge challenge. But as long as we keep improving the platform and fine-tuning the approach, we should arrive at the point where this will become an effective tool.
The points that are withdrawn or awarded when users participate in reporting fake news or sharing information have to be carefully synched throughout the platform.
Opinion journalism is being used to change the perseption of news consumers. In addition, a subliminal message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception are being deployed on our people.
Once again, trustworthy members of the platform will have special privileges that allow them to explain hidden agendas to news consumers.
This may be based on the credibility scores of the user or on which answers get voted as the best by readers. Alternative ideas will also be presented to let consumers arrive at an educated opinion.
The brainstorming session is designed in this format
Fake accounts
6395 Little River Turn Pike
Alexandria, VA 22312
Please try to get the by 3:45pm
These are the primary mockups of the platform. Their main intention is to give you a better idea of how we are imagining to implement the platform.
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