Following the recent US Elections, both Google and Facebook have both made statements that they will try to clamp down on ‘Fake News’.
Google writes:
“We will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, mis-state, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose of the web property,”
Firstly it’s worth noting that most websites which publish blatantly Fake News state so on their website. So technically they would not be deemed fake news according to Google. But what happens when an officially accepted narrative is questioned. Alternative media has been renowned for questioning the official version of truths and more often than not they are correct to do so. It’s also not uncommon for Alternative Media publishers to conceal information about themselves for reasons of personal safety – questioning the state version of events is a dangerous game!
It seems from Google’s statement that the big losers here will be the Alternative News sites, rather than Satire and Fake News sites. In doing so it allows the dying Mainstream media to try and get the upper hand once more.
So what does Facebook say on the issue ?
Well, Facebook has followed suit with their advertising network and is now cutting off Ad’s which are deemed ‘Fake News’, but they are still unsure of how to proceed with the posting of ‘Fake News’ on users news feeds. Mark Zuckerberg is not convinced it’s an issue but they are still in discussions about what to do, if they do anything at all.
“Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, of which it’s a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea,” said Zuckerberg, speaking Thursday night at the Techonomy conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
Fortunately, we do not advertise on our website so Googles clamp down will not affect us, nor do we promote our page through Facebooks advertising network – However if facebook decides to restrict or boot off any pages or users which, according to their terms, makes them ‘Fake News’ sites, we could be in danger of losing the Alternative Media on social media forever.
Now, I wonder if Mass media outlets such as CNN and BBC News will be affected?Just about all the mainstream media has been caught out at some point lying or manipulating the truth to suit their narrative.
Just about all the mainstream media has been caught out at some point lying or manipulating the truth to suit their narrative, yet I have the feeling they may be exempt from such adjustments to Google and Facebooks T&C’s
It wasn’t so long ago that the BBC got caught staging a chemical attack in Syria:
https://youtu.be/Z-zRe5D_n0Q
And let’s not forget the BBC have also been attacked by Ofcom for airing Propaganda films on multiple occasions, the following was taken from a report in The Independent, however it has since been pulled from the site (we promise this isn’t fake!):
News films and documentaries were acquired for nominal fees and the identity of the funders not disclosed to the audience – in what has been dubbed a “£1 programme scandal”. Ofcom has uncovered nearly 50 breaches of its code by CNN, CNBC and the BBC after a four-year inquiry into the global news channels, which are beamed into hotel rooms around the world.
The media regulator discovered a series of contraventions of its impartiality guidelines and found hundreds of nominal-fee programmes had been paid for by bodies ranging from United Nations departments to the Indonesian ministry of trade and a Cambodian casino firm.
