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Social media giants to face multimillion-dollar fines for spreading fake news (12ft.io)

submitted 2 years ago by Los@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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[–] wet_lettuce@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

He's not asking how to spot it. He's asking who gets to be the ultimate arbiter of fakeness?

Even reputable news sources make mistakes. Sometimes their sources give bad information. Maybe they reported in good faith, but with bad information?

What happens when they work around it by JAQ-ing off. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Just_asking_questions

[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

True, no matter how careful news outlets get things wrong, sources turn out to be mistaken etc etc but I think this law is not about punishing reputable news sources who make mistakes.

This law is more about Demonstrably false, unverified info, masquerading as real news. (Disinformation campaigns).

Hopefully the law is nuanced enough to distinguish between mistakes, I agree that there could be potential problem for misuse if it is too vague. However something like this is REALLY needed, social media is a hotbed of bullshit since since that crap means more user engagement . It angries up the blood and keeps users hooked. And then when this stuff is left to fester users get radicalized and start overdosing on horse medicine and shouting about lizard adrenalin or whatever...

I think a law like this is necessary to make social media companies do literally anything. They clearly wont if left to their own devices.