BBC Building Vast Fake News Destroyer
The BBC is by far the biggest global media brand. The BBC has vast experience with online stretching back to the birth of the Internet. When the BBC puts its mind to something the world notices.
The ‘death star’ image I’m using is only half a joke. The elephant in the room is moving around.
The BBC’s mind is focusing on ‘fake news’. They are teaming up with Facebook. The likes of Steve Bannon should be worried and the likes of my American friends like Charles should be extremely happy :]
The BBC is to assemble a team to fact check and debunk deliberately misleading and false stories masquerading as real news.
Amid growing concern among politicians and news organisations about the impact of false information online, news chief James Harding told staff on Thursday that the BBC would be “weighing in on the battle over lies, distortions and exaggerations”.
The plans will see the corporation’s Reality Check series become permanent, backed by a dedicated team targeting false stories or facts being shared widely on social media.
“The BBC can’t edit the internet, but we won’t stand aside either,” Harding said. “We will fact check the most popular outliers on Facebook, Instagram and other social media.
“We are working with Facebook, in particular, to see how we can be most effective. Where we see deliberately misleading stories masquerading as news, we’ll publish a Reality Check that says so.
“And we want Reality Check to be more than a public service, we want it to be hugely popular. We will aim to use styles and formats – online, on TV and on radio – that ensure the facts are more fascinating and grabby than the falsehoods.”
If you doubt the BBC’s ability, America, check the number of memes you have received from them. Starting with Galapagos lizards,
More: BBC sets up team to debunk fake news
European media is also working on countering ‘fake news’ and have some seriously good ideas - read this report.
A call to arms for journalists and news organisations https://t.co/0ssnrn2YTT
— Paul Bradshaw (@paulbradshaw) January 9, 2017
There’s lots of good work going on to counter fake news. Read the report here https://t.co/0bXj10xY99
— Paul Canning (@pauloCanning) January 13, 2017