Tag: news sources

A key issue that is affecting how newsworthy events are covered and what people should become aware of in the news is the rise of propaganda, satire and similar information disguised as news. This situation is being described as “fake news”, “post-truth” and “alternative facts” and a significant number of academics have described it as a reason why Donald Trump became President of the USA or why the British citizens wanted the UK to leave the European Union.

I am giving some space in HomeNetworking01.info to the fake-news topic because an increasing number of people are obtaining their daily news from online sources using a smartphone, tablet or computer. This may be in addition to the traditional papers or the radio or TV newscasts and current-affairs shows or in lieu of these resources.

There have been many factors that have led to a fertile ground for fake news to spread. One of these is that most of us are using online search / aggregation services and social media as our news sources. Similarly, due to reduced circulation or ratings, various well-known news publishers and broadcasters are cutting back on their news budgets which then reduce the number of journalists in the newsroom or reduce news coverage to a quality not dissimilar to a news bulletin offered by a music-focused radio station.

Add to this the fact that it is relatively cheap and easy to set up a Website that looks very enticing thanks to low-cost “no-questions-asked” Web-host services and easy-to-use content management systems. It has led to the rise of Websites that carry propaganda or other material dressed up as news with this material being of questionable accuracy or value. Let’s not forget that it is easy to use Twitter or Facebook to share articles with our friends or followers especially if these articles support our beliefs.

Autocomplete list in Google Search Web user interface

Google users can report Autocomplete suggestions that they come across in their search-engine experience/

It is also made worse by the cross-border nature of the Internet where one can set up a Website or social-media presence in one country to target citizens in another country with questionable messages. This makes it easier to run the propaganda but avoid being caught out by a broadcast-standards or election-oversight authority or the judicial system in the target jurisdiction.

The fact that the UK are going to the polls for a general election this year means that Britons will become more vulnerable to the fake-news phenomenon. This is a situation that is also affecting France and Germany, two of continental Europe’s major economic, political and population centres who either are in the throes of completing a general election.

Reporting autocomplete suggestions in Google Search Web user experience

What you see when you report autocomplete suggestions in the Google Search Web user experience

The Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Damian Collins (Conservatives), has raised this issue concerning Facebook and urging them to filter out fake news. This is although Silicon Valley have been taking steps to combat this problem through the following actions:

“turn off the money-supply tap” by refusing to partner their ad networks with fake-news sites or apps
engage with fact-checking organisations and departments that are either part of established newsrooms or universities to simplify the ability for their users to check the veracity of a claim
implementing a feedback loop to allow users to report auto-complete search suggestions, “snippets” answers, social-media posts and similar material shown in their sites, including the ability to report items as fake news
maintaining stronger user-account management and system security including eliminating accounts used just to deliver fake news and propaganda
modifying search-engine ranking algorithm or “trending-stories” listing algorithms to make it harder for fake news to surface.

What can you do?

Look for information that qualifies the kind of story if you are viewing a collection of headlines like a search or news-aggregation site or app. For example, Google has implemented tagging in their Google News aggregation site and apps such as “satire”.

Trust your gut reaction to that claim that is being offered in that Facebook post before you share it. If you find that the story sounds like exaggeration or is “off the beam”, it sounds like fake news. As well, the copy in many fake-news articles is written in a way to whip up anger or other immediate sentiment.

Check the host Website or use a search engine to see if trusted sources, especially the ones you trust, are covering the story. As well, if your browser offers a plug-in or extension that highlights fake-news and questionable content, it may be worth adding this feature.

Following news from one or more trusted news sources (including their online presence) may be the way to go to verify news being pushed around on the Internet.

For example, switching on the radio or the telly for the news may be a good idea so as to be sure of what really is going on with this election. In the case of the radio, you may find that BBC Radio 4, BBC Local Radio or a talk-focused independent station like LBC may be the better resource for deeper coverage of the election. Music stations who are part of the same family as a news or talk station such as the BBC stations or Capital, Heart and Classic FM who are part of the same family as LBC can also be of value if you use their short news bulletins as a news source. This is because their news bulletins are fed by the newsroom that serves the talk station.

As well, visit the online sites offered by trusted publishers and broadcasters to check the news in relationship to what the parties are saying. It also includes heading to Websites operated by the various parties or candidates so you can get the facts and policies “from the horse’s mouth”.

You also must take advantage of the feedback loop that Facebook, Google and other online services offer to call out questionable content that appears during the election period. Typically this will be options to report the content or autocomplete hit as something like being inappropriate.

Silicon Valley starts a war against fake news

simonmackay 17/11/2016 Current and Future Trends, Current events, Fake News, Disinformation and Propaganda, Network Lifestyle And Activities, Online News Services, Social issues involving home computing No Comments

Article

Facebook and Google to block ads on fake news websites | Adnews

Facebook Employees Are In Revolt Over Fake News | Gizmodo

Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites | New York Times

Does the internet have a fake-news problem? | CNet

Google CEO says fake news is a problem and should not be distributed | The Verge

Want to keep fake news out of your newsfeed? College professor creates list of sites to avoid | Los Angeles Times

My Comments

Since Donald Trump gained election victory in the USA, there has been some concern amongst a few of Silicon Valley’s tech companies regarding the existence of “fake news”.

This is typically a story that is presented in order to refer to an actual news event but doesn’t relate to any actual news event. In some cases, such stories a hyped-up versions of an existing news item but in a lot of cases, these stories are built up on rumours.

The existence of Internet-distributed fake news has been of concern amongst journalists especially where newsroom budgets are being cut back and more news publishers and broadcasters are resorting to “rip-and-read” journalism, something previously associated with newscasts provided by music-focused FM radio stations.

Similarly, most of us are using Internet-based news sources as part of our personal news-media options or or only source of news, especially when we are using portable devices like ultraportable laptops, tablets or smartphones as our main Internet terminals for Web browsing.

Silicon Valley also see the proliferation of fake news as a threat to the provision of balanced coverage of news and opinion because they see this as a vehicle for delivering the populist political agenda rather than level-headed intelligent news. This is typically because the headline and copy in “fake news” reports is written in a way to whip up an angry sentiment regarding the topics concerned, thus discouraging further personal research.

But Facebook and Google are tackling this problem initially by turning off the advertising-money tap for fake-news sites. Facebook will apply this to ad-funded apps that work alongside these sites while Google will apply this as a policy for people who sign up to the AdSense online display-ads platform.

There is the issue of what kind of curating exists in the algorithms that list search results or news items on a search-engine or social-media page. It also includes how the veracity of news content is being deemed, even though Google and Facebook are avoiding being in a position where they can be seen as “arbiters of truth”.

The big question that can exist is what other actions could Silicon Valley take to curb the dissemination of fake news beyond just simply having their ad networks turn off the supply of advertising to these sites? This is because the popular search engines are essentially machine-generated indexes of the Web, while the Social Web and the blogosphere are ways where people share links to resources that exist on the Web.

Some people were suggesting the ability for a search engine like Google or a social network site like Facebook to have its user interface “flag” references to known fake-news stories, based on user or other reports. Similarly, someone could write desktop or mobile software like a browser add-on that does this same thing, or simply publish a publicly-available list of known “fake-news” Websites for people to avoid.

This is infact an angle that a US-based college professor had taken where she prepared a Google Docs resource listing the Websites hosting that kind of news, in order to help people clean their RSS newsfeeds of misinformation, with some mainstream online news sources including the New York Magazine providing a link to this resource.

The issue of fake news distributed via the Internet is becoming a real problem, but Silicon Valley is looking at different ways to solve this problem and bring to it the same level of respect that was associated with traditional media.

Celebrity gossip sites–attractive to malware distributors

simonmackay 15/11/2016 Data security No Comments

Articles

Who Weekly celebrity-gossip-magazine Web site

Be sure you stick with trusted news sites when you are after celebrity gossip

The most dangerous celebrities to look up on Google | BGR.com

Searching for celebrity news on Google can be dangerous for your computer | Panda Security

Malware parasites feed on PerezHilton.com gossip fans | BBC News

My Comments

An issue that has been raised is that searching for the latest news and gossip about a celebrity can be risky for your computer’s security. Panda Security even described it as being of risk to a business’s computer systems because office workers would do it during slow times in their workday. It is though this activity is still today’s equivalent of looking through the gossip magazines at the supermarket checkout or in the doctor’s waiting room.

This is because the Internet has made it easier to push up “fly-by-night” gossip Websites that are laden with malware and have these advertised.

Online ad - to be respected like advertising in printed media

Ads on sites like here need to be secure to obtain the same respect as magazine ads

It is also because there is a weakness that exists in the online advertising marketplace is that ad networks and publishers don’t subject the advertising that comes to these networks to thorough scrutiny on a safety perspective. This then allows online advertising to become a breeding ground for malware with such things as “malvertising” where scripted ads are used to “push” malware on to users’ systems. This is a topic I have raised because I am wanting to see the rise of a quality online ad marketplace that has the same level of respect as the advertising seen in traditional print media.

A similar situation happens whenever a new album or movie featuring a popular entertainer is released because sites and torrent files would pop up claiming to offer the material for free. To the same extent, this could include offers of “exclusive” photo, audio and video material relating to the content or its performers for free. The same thing also can happen with surveillance, personal-album or similar material that features celebrities in compromising situations and ends up being “leaked” to the public arena. Again these sites and the torrent “file-of-files” available to download would be a minefield of malware files if you aren’t careful.

The situation becomes worse during the time surrounding entertainment-industry awards events, the release of new headline content featuring the celebrities or whenever there are major personal events affecting these people such as new relationships or relationship breakups. The articles cited that people involved with the Hollywood entertainment scene are more likely to be targeted with fly-by-night malware sites, malvertising attempts and similar skulduggery. but I also would place at risk of this treatment the British Royal Family or past and present popular Presidents of the United States.

What can you do?

Make sure your regular or mobile computing device is running the latest version of the operating system and you are using the latest version of the Web browser(s) and other software that you surf the Web with. It may also be a good practice to run an up-to-date version of a desktop / endpoint security program which can scan for flaky links and files.
Most importantly, think before you click! When you are searching for information about a particular show, recording or star, get it “from the horse’s mouth” – go to the publisher’s or broadcaster’s site that relates to what you are after. Also visit the online presence of the mastheads that you know and trust when you are after the celebrity or entertainment-industry news. Examples of these would be those magazines available at the supermarket checkout
But be careful about anyone offering links to resources that are too good to be true, especially where words like “free” and “exclusive” are bandied around. These sites are the ones that are the malware traps.
You may find that using tools like search engines or browser plugins that verify Websites’ reputation may be of assistance when it comes to staying away from flaky Websites.
As for online advertising with sites that are suddenly popular, be careful about following through on these links or make sure you are using desktop security software to protect your computer against malware.

Conclusion

You can engage in the digital equivalent of browsing the gossip mags safely as long as you are sure of the resources that you are heading towards and don’t fall for the bait.