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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 10 OcTOber 2017
Fake news is still here, despite efforts by Google, Facebook

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and get caught off guard “be-
RYAN NAKASHIMA cause their algorithms just
AP Technology Writers look for signs of popularity
Nearly a year after and recency at first,” with-
Facebook and Google out first checking to en-
launched offensives sure relevance, says David
against fake news, they’re Carroll, a professor of me-
still inadvertently promot- dia design at the Parsons
ing it — often at the worst School of Design in New
possible times. York.
Online services designed That problem is much big-
to engross users aren’t so ger in the wake of disaster,
easily retooled to promote when facts are still unclear
greater accuracy, it turns and demand for informa-
out. Especially with online tion runs high.
trolls, pranksters and more Malicious actors have
malicious types scheming learned to take advan-
to evade new controls as tage of this, says Mandy
they’re rolled out. Jenkins, head of news at
FEAR AND FALSITY IN LAS social media and news
VEGAS research agency Storyful.
In the immediate after- “They know how the sites In this Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, file photo, a woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside
math of the Las Vegas work, they know how algo- of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip. Associated Press
shooting, Facebook’s “Cri- rithms work, they know how
sis Response” page for the the media works,” she says. false reports about the Las a tough one to resolve.” guidelines for human work-
attack featured a false ar- Participants on 4chan’s Vegas shooting, although MORE PEOPLE, FEWER RO- ers who help rate search
ticle misidentifying the gun- “Politically Incorrect” chan- it didn’t say what it had in BOTS results in order to limit mis-
man and claiming he was nel regularly chat about mind. Federal law currently ex- leading and offensive ma-
a “far left loon.” Google “how to deploy fake news The company has already empts Facebook, Google terial.
promoted a similarly erro- strategies” around major taken a number of steps and similar companies Earlier this year, Google
neous item from the anon- stories, says Dan Leibson, since December; it now from liability for material also allowed users to flag
ymous prankster site 4chan vice president of search at features fact-checks by published by their users. so-called “featured snip-
in its “Top Stories” results. the digital marketing con- outside organizations, puts But circumstances are forc- pets” and “autocomplete”
A day after the attack, a sultancy Local SEO Guide. warning labels on disputed ing the tech companies to suggestions if they found
YouTube search on “Las One such chat just hours stories and has de-empha- accept more responsibil- the content harmful.
Vegas shooting” yielded after the Las Vegas urged sized false stories in peo- ity for the information they The Google-sponsored
a conspiracy-theory vid- readers to “push the fact ple’s news feeds. spread. Trust Project at Santa Clara
eo that claimed multiple this terrorist was a commie” GETTING ALGORITHMS Facebook said last week University is also working
shooters were involved in on social media. “There RIGHT that it would hire an extra to create tags that could
the attack as the fifth re- were people discussing Breaking news is also in- 1,000 people to help vet serve as markers of cred-
sult. YouTube is owned by how to create engage- herently challenging for ads after it found a Russian ibility for individual authors.
Google. ment all night,” Leibson automated filter systems. agency bought ads meant These would include items
None of these stories were says. Google says the 4chan to influence last year’s such as their location and
true. Police identified the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER post that misidentified the election. It’s also subjecting journalism awards, informa-
sole shooter as Stephen Thanks to political polar- Las Vegas shooter should potentially sensitive ads , in- tion that could be fed into
Paddock, a Nevada man ization, the very notion of not have appeared in its cluding political messages, future algorithms, accord-
whose motive remains a what constitutes a “cred- “Top Stories” feature, and to “human review.” ing to project director Sally
mystery . The attack last ible” source of news is now was replaced by its algo- In July, Google revamped Lehrman.q
Monday on a music festival a point of contention. rithm after a few hours.
left 58 dead and hundreds Mainstream journalists rou- Outside experts say
wounded. tinely make judgments Google was flummoxed by
The companies quickly about the credibility of vari- two different issues. First, its
purged offending links and ous publications based on “Top Stories” is designed
tweaked their algorithms their history of accuracy. to return results from the
to favor more authoritative That’s a much more com- broader web alongside
sources. But their work is plicated issue for mass- items from news outlets.
clearly incomplete — a dif- market services like Face- Second, signals that help
ferent Las Vegas conspira- book and Google, given Google’s system evaluate
cy video was the eighth re- the popularity of many in- the credibility of a web
sult displayed by YouTube accurate sources among page — for instance, links
in a search Monday. political partisans. from known authoritative
ENGAGEMENT FIRST The pro-Trump Gateway sources — aren’t available
Why do these highly au- Pundit site, for example, in breaking news situations,
tomated services keep published the false Las says independent search
failing to separate truth Vegas story promoted optimization consultant
from fiction? One big fac- by Facebook. But it has Matthew Brown.
tor: most online services also been invited to White “If you have enough ci-
systems tend to emphasis House press briefings and tations or references to
posts that engage an audi- counts more than 620,000 something, algorithmically
ence — exactly what a lot fans on its Facebook page. that’s going to look very
of fake news is specifically Facebook said last week important to Google,”
designed to do. it is “working to fix the is- Brown said. “The problem is
Facebook and Google sue” that led it to promote an easy one to define but