Fake news can be a dangerous thing, especially in this age of social media where news (whether fake by intention or accidental) can be spread at a click of a button, after which there’s really no stopping it from being seen by hundreds, if not thousands, or even an entire country of people.
Some argue that social media platforms should do more about it, which companies such as Facebook have, and recently in an interview with CNN’s Reliable Sources (via Engadget), Twitter’s CEO spoke and explained the company’s stance and approach with regards to fake news. This was in response to criticism of Twitter’s policies where in the past the company has appeared to be slow or reluctant to take down content that the majority would consider to be false information.
According to Jack Dorsey, he claims that Twitter had yet to “figure out” fake news, and thus is reluctant to outright remove posts that are deemed to be false. He reiterated what Twitter’s head of public policy for the UK said earlier this year, in which he said it would be dangerous for the company’s staff to start acting as the “arbiters of truth”.
As Engadget points out, it appears that Twitter is trying to paint themselves as a neutral party, but whether or not it is coming off that way is up for debate. In any case if you have some time to spare, you can check out Dorsey’s interview in the video above.
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