Is Social Media Disinformation an InfoSec Community Issue?

 

Key Points:

  • Facebook is under fresh pressure around its business model, algorithms, and role in spreading misinformation.
  • Recent NYU studies show “fake news” gets six times as much engagement than “credible” news sources on Facebook.
  • Is the “fake news” fight only a structural one, or can users impact how social platforms spread disinformation by changing behavior?

Commentary:

The last several years have been defined by a campaign against social media disinformation. Namely, Facebook has been the target of critique in the US and internationally, with specific pushback to the company’s handling of “fake news” during the 2020 presidential election and the pandemic.

Over the course of these various critiques around the spread of conspiracy theories, misinformation and even implications in the January Capitol riot, Facebook has responded with different strategies for curbing hate speech and bringing trust back to its news sourcing. This includes pre-approving media sources for reliability as well as letting users rank outlets for credibility, a double-pronged approach to determining source quality. How effective these strategies have been at curbing actual misinformation is still up for debate, and we wanted to get in on that debate.

Is Facebook’s approach to curbing misinformation and hate speech a sustainable & efficacious way to create more trust in content sources? Dr. Chirag Shah, Associate Professor in the Master of Science in Information Management program at the University of Washington, gave his perspective. Dr. Shah’s research focuses on fairness in data science, machine learning, search and recommendation, and responsible AI.

Abridged Thoughts:

I believe what Facebook and many other companies are doing in terms of blocking some bad actors or bad media channels that generated misinformation, disinformation is not nearly enough. It’s just a small part of the problem. There’s a whole vicious circle here, which sometimes starts with some bad actors, but really takes a life of its own. Once we all start sharing and doing things now, we know that people react very strongly to certain to different emotions fear, hatred. They tend to be the ones that cause for the biggest engagement and participation. So until we do something about it, we’re going to continue seeing this misinformation and disinformation blocking certain channels sources is not going to cut it. So there are things we can do that are easy. There are things that are hard. The easiest thing to do is obviously to block these sources that we believe are spreading social media disinformation. The more difficult thing to do in the next level would be creating transparency because it is these algorithms that are responsible for even propagating to recommending these kind of information to the end users. These algorithms are tuned to business objectives.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Latest

Bridging the Gap Between the Commercial and Residential Audio Communities
November 27, 2023

In this episode of “Pro AV Today,” host Ben Thomas sits down with Audra Kinsley of Sonos Professional to unpack a topic that’s causing (sound) waves in the audio industry: the fusion of commercial and residential audio systems. As we navigate through a landscape where consumer and professional audio worlds are increasingly intersecting, Sonos steps […]

Read More
Unleashing Educator Brilliance: Transformative Thought Leadership in Education
November 27, 2023

In an era where education stands at the crossroads of tradition and innovation, the potential value of thought leadership becomes the guiding star for progress. “Just Thinking” dives into this potential with host Kevin Dougherty and guest Evan Edwards, a Professional Learning Specialist at 806 Technologies who exemplifies the transformative impact of visionary guidance […]

Read More
strategic scheduling
Exploring Strategic Scheduling with Timely: A Key to Managing Educational Fiscal Challenges
November 27, 2023

Author: Michael Horn Educational institutions today are facing a financial precipice, with declining enrollments and funding cuts. Many schools are struggling to adapt to these fiscal pressures, highlighting the need for transformative solutions. This scenario raises an urgent need for innovative strategies like strategic scheduling to manage resources efficiently. What innovative approaches can districts […]

Read More