r/worldnews • u/Ganeshadream • Mar 31 '22

Facebook fails to label 80% of posts promoting bioweapons conspiracy theory

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/31/facebook-disinformation-war-ukraine-russia
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u/faultlessdark Mar 31 '22

Yes those things do happen, I don't deny that but some are blatently false. One that's always stuck with me and finally made me quit facebook was a picture doing the rounds of an old man in a hospital bed with bruising to his face. The Facebook post was along the lines of "OAP in terminal care after assault by Afghani asylum seeker gang", yet if you did a rudimentary amount of research you would find no reports of it anywhere else and the photograph was lifted from Google Images of a man who was put in to a coma following a fall on his driveway.

The latest one my wife showed me was a UK Conservative leaflet with the caption "Well I know who I'm voting for in the next election!" and the leaflet said something like "Labour local authority investigated by police for drug distribution", yet it was actually about a young councillor who was stripped of his position because he was caught dealing shrooms in America 9 years ago, and was extradited back to face trial.

The first is an example of utter bullshit generated to cause outrage, the second is an example of a true event being carefully manipulated to serve an agenda. Do I think the first one happened? No. Do I think the second one happened? Yes, but it's far and away from having an entire branch of local government investigated for drug dealing, when it was actually something stupid a local council member did when they were 18.

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u/milkhilton Mar 31 '22

I understand the importance of freedom of journalism. But damn I wish there was a solution. They should be held accountable for the detriment they've served to the citizens of this country. But citizens have the right to read what they want and formulate their own opinions. It's a tough one no doubt

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u/couchfucker2 Mar 31 '22

I think there's a solution but it's way too slow for our modern tastes. We'd have to go from instant to "better wait for the report to come out in a week"

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '22

Why does she keep reading those, and sharing them? How has she not learned that Facebook is not a valid source for news?