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[Dalek]

Fake news on Facebook is a real problem. These college students came up with a fix in 36 hours.

Anant Goel, Nabanita De, Qinglin Chen and Mark Craft at Princeton’s hackathon (Anant Goel)

When Nabanita De scrolled through her Facebook feed recently, she felt afraid. There were so many posts with competing information and accusations about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that she didn’t know how to begin deciphering the fearmongering from the reality.

The social media site has faced criticism since the presidential election for its role in disseminating fake and misleading stories that are indistinguishable from real news. Because Facebook’s algorithm is designed to determine what its individual users want to see, people often see only that which validates their existing beliefs regardless of whether the information being shared is true.

So when De, an international second-year master’s student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, attended a hackathon at Princeton University this week with a simple prompt to develop a technology project in 36 hours, she suggested to her three teammates that they try to build an algorithm that authenticates what is real and what is fake on Facebook.

And they were able to do it.

De, with Anant Goel, a freshman at Purdue University, and Mark Craft and Qinglin Chen, sophomores at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, built a Chrome browser extension that tags links in Facebook feeds as verified or not verified by taking into account factors such as the source’s credibility and cross-checking the content with other news stories. Where a post appears to be false, the plug-in will provide a summary of more credible information on the topic online.

They’ve called it FiB.

Since the students developed it in only a day and a half (and have classes and schoolwork to worry about), they’ve released it as an “open-source project,” asking anyone with development experience to help them improve it. The plugin is available for download to the public, but the demand was so great that their limited operation couldn’t handle it.

So while FiB isn’t currently up and running, when it works, this is what it looks like:

When a link cannot be verified, it looks like this:

Goel said that ideally, Facebook would team up with a third-party developer such as FiB so that the company could control all news feed data but then let the developers verify it so Facebook couldn’t be accused of “hidden agendas or biases.”

The sponsors of the hackathon included Facebook and other major technology companies. FiB was awarded “Best Moonshot” by Google, but neither Facebook nor Google, which has its own problems with promoting fake news, have reached out about helping them.

This presidential election year has shown how the lines have blurred between fact and lies, with people profiting off the spread of fake news. There are more than 100 news sites that made up pro-Trump content traced to Macedonia, according to a BuzzFeed News investigation. The Washington Post interviewed Paul Horner, a prolific fake-news creator, who said, “I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything.”

Melissa Zimdars, a communications professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, said she’s seen a similar problem with her students who cite from sources that are not credible. So she created a list of fake, misleading or satirical sites as a reference for her students. She created it not as a direct response to the postelection fake news debate but simply to encourage her students to become more media literate by checking what they read against other sources.

Zimdars said media literacy has become a challenge because people have grown so distrustful of institutional media that they turn to alternative sources. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that only 18 percent of people have a lot of trust in national news organizations; nearly 75 percent said news organizations are biased.

It doesn’t help, she said, that news media, to be profitable, rely on “click-bait” headlines that are sometimes indistinguishable from the fake stories.

Another problem, said Paul Mihailidis, who teaches media literacy at Emerson College in Boston, is that many people sharing links on Facebook don’t care whether it’s true.

“I don’t think a lot of people didn’t know; I think they didn’t care. They saw it as a way to advocate,” he said. “The more they could spread rumors, or could advocate for their value system or candidate, that took precedent over them not knowing. A large portion of them didn’t stop to critique the information. One of the things that has happened is people are scrolling though [Facebook] and the notion of deep reading is being replaced by deep monitoring. They see a catchy headline, and the default is to share.”

That’s where the plugin tool presents a simple solution.

“A few days back, I read an article telling people they can drill a jack in the iPhone7 and have an earphone plug, and people started doing it and ruining their phones,” De said. “We know we can search on Google and research it, but if you have five minutes and you’re just scrolling through Facebook, you don’t have time to go verify it.

 

[explodet]

 

[Dabanton]

Whatever happens people will still post fake news. If it's not on FB. Then these people will go back to the email chain letters.

Or even start their own groups on FB to share this stuff out.

“A few days back, I read an article telling people they can drill a jack in the iPhone7 and have an earphone plug, and people started doing it and ruining their phones,” De said. “We know we can search on Google and research it, but if you have five minutes and you’re just scrolling through Facebook, you don’t have time to go verify it.

lol

 

[Haly]

While this is very impressive from a technical standpoint (damn overachieving ugrads), this doesn't get to the heart of the problem which is that people no longer exercise their critical faculties. In fact, extension-ifying it will just, in the long term, exacerbate the problem as people leave fact checking to automation instead of doing it themselves.

 

[B-Dubs]

And Facebook keeps saying there's no way for them to fix the issue.

 

[Psychoward]

I feel like not verified will just become a badge of honor to some.


"Here's what the liberal experts don't want you to know!"

 

[Arkeband]

Distrust in the algorithm by people stupid enough to fall for fake news immediately defeats the purpose of this plugin.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

These are not the people I expected would have taken ethics in journalism so seriously.

 

[Escape Goat]

i think posts were deleted in this thread or Im having a mental break.

 

[Nafai1123]

Your move Google/Facebook. Step the fuck up and take some accountability.

 

[smokeymicpot]

I feel like not verified will just become a badge of honor to some.


"Here's what the liberal experts don't want you to know!"

This is what will happen. The media has taken over facebook.

 

[EMT0]

Old people. I'd bet you could chart the moment old people started using Facebook with the increasing amount of bullshit news that has became rampant.

 

[Kaz42]

i think posts were deleted in this thread or Im having a mental break.

I noticed that too. Maybe mods are cracking down on lame drive by posts

 

[Rebel Leader]

i think posts were deleted in this thread or Im having a mental break.

Those were fake posts

 

[killer rin]

Your move Google/Facebook. Step the fuck up and take some accountability.

But whats the point. Zuckerburg said himself that only 1% of news on Facebook is false. There is absolutely no problem, none at all. It obviously doesn't exist

 

[Jeffrey]

seems like their servers are down from the traffic hit.

Interesting to see how they are scraping this stuff, pulling stuff from facebook has always been a pain.

 

[HAWDOKEN]

This only solves the issue if the plugin is installed. People who believe fake news and don't take time to verify sources probably don't know what a plugin is.

 

[mrhyderager]

Just goes to show that if Facebook were interested in being a legitimate news platform they need only hire the right people and it would be done.

I don't think Facebook actually cares, and honestly, I don't know why they should. The fact that we as people haven't all learned that you "can't believe everything you read on the internet" then I think we've got some unresolved personal problems. The people that believe the fake stories they read on facebook tend not to actually care whether or not it's true anyway. It fits with their image of the world and so they canonize it in their mind.

 

[Future]

I feel like not verified will just become a badge of honor to some.


"Here's what the liberal experts don't want you to know!"

That's the bit right there. Groups are proud to say shit ain't verified by liberal news media. It's crazy. Facts dismissed from being facts based on who is reporting it

If anything proved that facts don't matter in most walks of life it is this election cycle. It's about getting emotions out of people to sway someone to your side

 

[Pedrito]

That's great but the people sharing these stories don't really care if they're fake or not. And the people who would want to use that script are probably not the kind of people who would believe or share these stories in the first place.

And if facebook implements it, there will be an uproar about censorship and manipulation of information...

 

[Totakeke]

I feel like not verified will just become a badge of honor to some.


"Here's what the liberal experts don't want you to know!"

How am I hearing this argument again. If that news is fake then it's included in the ban. If people search for it outside of Facebook, it's not Facebook's problem.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

But whats the point. Zuckerburg said himself that only 1% of news on Facebook is false. There is absolutely no problem, none at all. It obviously doesn't exist

Facebook to advertisers: our platform drives conversion!
Facebook on fake news: people aren't influenced by fake links online

 

[B-Dubs]

But whats the point. Zuckerburg said himself that only 1% of news on Facebook is false. There is absolutely no problem, none at all. It obviously doesn't exist

Given the amount of news on Facebook that's a gigantic issue.

Just goes to show that if Facebook were interested in being a legitimate news platform they need only hire the right people and it would be done.

I don't think Facebook actually cares, and honestly, I don't know why they should. The fact that we as people haven't all learned that you "can't believe everything you read on the internet" then I think we've got some unresolved personal problems. The people that believe the fake stories they read on facebook tend not to actually care whether or not it's true anyway. It fits with their image of the world and so they canonize it in their mind.

According to some reporting that's been floating about Facebook has had a fix to this for like a year now but haven't done it so they wouldn't piss off conservative users.

 

[Ketch]

While this is very impressive from a technical standpoint (damn overachieving ugrads), this doesn't get to the heart of the problem which is that people no longer exercise their critical faculties. In fact, extension-ifying it will just, in the long term, exacerbate the problem as people leave fact checking to automation instead of doing it themselves.

While I agree with this I still think that this is a huge step forward for all of the Internet in general. Like imagine if this were to be applied to every news article and search result You looked at. i honestly think that this could be taken beyond just Facebook and do a lot of good.... That is until people figured out how to abuse the algorithm which would probably only take some other grad students about one more day to figure out.

Imagine this technology applied to NeoGAF posts.

 

[fabricated backlash]

I feel like not verified will just become a badge of honor to some.


"Here's what the liberal experts don't want you to know!"

Ding Ding Ding.

Good idea in concept, but it's more like trying to cover a blown off leg with a Bandaid.

 

[Sabas]

Another problem is groups that people join that post images of misinformation that get spread around and liked. I don't see this problem going away unless FB is going to go after them as well.

 

[His Majesty]

they can drill a jack in the iPhone7 and have an earphone plug, and people started doing it and ruining their phones

lol

 

[Mike M]

I think we're beyond the event horizon on this issue. We're trapped in a feedback loop where any attempt to address fake news just reinforces the belief that mainstream media is the one disseminating lies. The bubbles and echo chambers are just impregnable at this point, and I genuinely don't think there's a way out.

 

[Totakeke]

That's the bit right there. Groups are proud to say shit ain't verified by liberal news media. It's crazy. Facts dismissed from being facts based on who is reporting it

If anything proved that facts don't matter in most walks of life it is this election cycle. It's about getting emotions out of people to sway someone to your side

This is what will happen. The media has taken over facebook.

Ding Ding Ding.

Good idea in concept, but it's more like trying to cover a blown off leg with a Bandaid.

Facebook bans fake news -> More fake news comes up -> Facebook doesn't ban fake news(???)

 

[Mike M]

Facebook bans fake news -> More fake news comes up -> Facebook doesn't ban fake news(???)

Facebook isn't banning fake news.

 

[besada]

People get that Facebook could use the same algorithm to curtail fake news stories, right? That it doesn't have to be packed into a user-side extension. This is a proof of concept to show FB that the algorithm itself is there, and it's up to them to make it useful. Until then, people who care about whether the news they're seeing is bullshit or not can use it.

 

[Totakeke]

Facebook isn't banning fake news.

You know that's not what I'm saying.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

These are not the people I expected would have taken ethics in journalism so seriously.

Fucking lol.

 

[Dabanton]

As others have said a lot of people do not care whether the news is real or fake as long as it fits their own worldview.

I've always tried to read as many different sources as possible even newspapers and sites that don't share my political affiliations.

 

[Fewr]

"Fake news on Facebook is a real problem. These college students came up with a fix in 36 hours."

So, is this real or fake news?

 

[Totakeke]

As others have said a lot of people do not care whether the news is real or fake as long as it fits their own worldview.

I've always tried to read as many different sources as possible even newspapers and sites that don't share my political affiliations.

No one is asking Facebook to fix societal flaws. Just asking Facebook to not propagate it.

 

[rokkerkory]

Why do people get news on FB in the first place?

smh

 

[Nafai1123]

People get that Facebook could use the same algorithm to curtail fake news stories, right? That it doesn't have to be packed into a user-side extension. This is a proof of concept to show FB that the algorithm itself is there, and it's up to them to make it useful. Until then, people who care about whether the news they're seeing is bullshit or not can use it.

Exactly. FB could use this algorithm to keep fake news stories out of people feeds and Google could use this to keep fake news stories from being top search results.

 

[tokkun]

What are the false positive and false negative rates?

 

[killer rin]

Exactly. FB could use this algorithm to keep fake news stories out of people feeds and Google could use this to keep fake news stories from being top search results.

Hell. If a bunch of college students could do it with their limited resources; there is absolutely zero reason why Google or Facebook couldn't make a vastly better version with their piles of Collected Data and Money

 

[cdyhybrid]

It would help the genuinely confused, but it will do nothing to pop the Fox News/Breitbart delusion bubble.

Only better education can do that. People need to be taught to think critically and question things instead of taking them at face value.

 

[Stinkles]

Why do people get news on FB in the first place?

smh

I get news (alerts) from Graf and facebook. Question is how do people follow up those initial pings?

 

[exmachina64]

Hell. If a bunch of college students could do it with their limited resources; there is absolutely zero reason why Google or Facebook couldn't make a vastly better version with their piles of Collected Data and Money

Facebook and Google have to navigate a regulatory environment controlled by the people who feel threatened by the removal of fake news stories. There's a strong possibility that Congress will pass laws preventing this if Facebook and Google move forward.

 

[devilhawk]

I'm going to enjoy when many of the people cheering for this get outraged when all of their anti-gmo and gluten free "science" links get fixed too.

 

[Dalek]

Why do people get news on FB in the first place?

smh

I follow the NY Times and Washington Post on Facebook.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

But whats the point. Zuckerburg said himself that only 1% of news on Facebook is false. There is absolutely no problem, none at all. It obviously doesn't exist

What's the breakdown on that statistic, though? Is it that only 1% of total facebook news traffic/activity is driven by fake news? That's still a huge problem for a platform that serves almost 2 billion. Or is it that of the total number of unique bits of internet media only 1% is fake news? Because then that could still mean the same fake articles could get circulated more individually than other internet media, which is even worse. It's terrible any way you slice it. The problem is a societal one, though, and while the OP is a good start (though still open for abuse/backfiring) it falls far short of the grassroots cultural course-correction that needs to happen as far as having people think critically and actually use the unfathomable resources set forth to do so.

 

[Skytylz]

What are the false positive and false negative rates?

Digging through the code and it looks like it just uses https://www.mywot.com/ to verify domains. Also does some image analysis, twitter detection, etc. The big things seems to be checking that website though.

 

[Nafai1123]

Facebook and Google have to navigate a regulatory environment controlled by the people who feel threatened by the removal of fake news stories. There's a strong possibility that Congress will pass laws preventing this if Facebook and Google move forward.

On what grounds? These are private companies using their own search algorithms. What regulations even exist surrounding this?

I'm going to enjoy when many of the people cheering for this get outraged when all of their anti-gmo and gluten free "science" links get fixed too.

I think you overestimate the number of "Stein-y scientists" around here.

 

[Enduin]

"Not Verified" is pretty mild a label. It will help with some people for sure, but like others have said many will just claim it's the mainstream media trying to suppress the truth.

These days too many people seem to care far far less about whether something is true, but whether it aligns with how they feel the world is or if it reaffirms beliefs or "information" they already hold.

People don't even trust things like Politifact and Snopes where they literally spell out and break down how and why a story is false or outright fake.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

I get news (alerts) from Graf and facebook. Question is how do people follow up those initial pings?

News alerts from Facebook are a thing? Then they are directly responsible for pushing that junk to most people's phones.