As a follow up to my last post on falsified news and doctored photos generated on social media feeds, it is prudent to report that two of the world's biggest digital information platforms say they're getting ready to roll out tools in Canada designed to crack down on so-called "fake news."
The phenomenon of false or misleading information being widely disseminated online became a major storyline in the U.S. presidential campaign, which culminated in election of Donald Trump. It has also been happening in Canada: Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, has admitted posting false information about the Trudeau government in an effort to draw out left-leaning voters.
Kouvalis tweeted a list of "billions" of dollars Justin Trudeau's Liberal government had supposedly given to international aid organizations in the last year, including $351 million for the designated terrorist group Hamas. He later admitted the information was false, telling Maclean's magazine that he posted it "to make the left go nuts."
So let's not get smug guys! I have developed an eye for this sort of thing and believe me it occurs every day on Facebook alone...And people fall for it, depending on their political leanings or social biases. As a rule of thumb I take all releases from political parties or their representatives as propaganda until I have had a chance to double (and triple) check the facts; likewise any statements in isolation that are cleverly packaged on Facebook to attract knee-jerk reactions and shares. They all do it because they can...They do it because they think the public is gullible, and for the most part they are right.
NEWS FLASH: Some of us are catching on!
Both Google and Facebook have been testing online tools in the U.S. and the U.K. aimed at helping users identify credible information posted on their web portals. And they say they expect to provide similar tools to Canadian users soon.
Google has incorporated a "fact-check" tag into some news pages to help readers find fact-checked content in large stories. "We're actively working to bring this feature to Canada in the near future," said a source at Google who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about it publicly.
Facebook said it was still in the early stages of testing, tweaking and rolling out tools to combat fake news. "It is still early days, but we're looking forward to learning and continuing to roll this out more broadly soon," said Facebook spokesman Alex Kucharski.
Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is on record as saying she wants to speak with social network and media managers to see what, if anything, the government can do to ensure Canadians are viewing reliable information when they search the Internet.
The best news to date was the announcement that a classroom program "NewsWise", aimed at teaching Canadian elementary and high school students how to detect fake news in an era in which almost anyone can publish information, is under development. The idea is to enhance general news literacy among students aged nine to 19, an increasingly important skill set when so many readily accessible news accounts are unreliable or simply fabricated.
"Fake news accelerates distrust in our institutions, including distrust of the trained media who spend so much time trying to hold the powerful to account," David Walmsley, editor of The Globe and Mail, said in a statement. "This initiative provides an arena to engage a younger audience and to ensure they're equipped with the skills to identify reliable sources of information."
As I keep emphasizing, social media have become a key means for spreading news, with the difference between real, mistaken and deliberately fake information often hard to discern. Two organizations, CIVIX and the Canadian Journalism Foundation, said they would work with academics and journalists to develop the curriculum for about 1.5 million Canadian students. CIVIX, a national charity focused on getting youth engaged in civics, stressed the importance of reliable news sources to a functional democracy.
Google Canada, part of the worldwide information behemoth that has come under fire from some mainstream news organizations for making their product widely available at no cost to consumers, is also providing $500,000 to fund the NewsWise classroom program.
So all is not lost...credible news is still possible. We just have to keep our fingers crossed.
Meantime Canada needs to catch up on analyzing and responding to these new challenges. With thanks to Edward Greenspon, president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum, and Taylor Owen, assistant professor of digital media and global affairs at the University of British Columbia, here's where we could start:
-- A well-funded and ongoing research program to keep tabs on the evolving networks and methods of anti-democratic forces, including their use of new technologies. Government support for artificial intelligence is necessary; so is vigilance about how it is applied and governed.
-- Upgraded reconnaissance and defences to detect and respond to attacks in the early stages, as with the European Union’s East StratCom Task Force. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already instructed his Minister of Democratic Institutions to help political parties protect against hackers. That’s good, but a total rethink of electoral integrity is required, including tightening political spending limits outside writ periods and appointing a digital-savvy chief electoral officer.
-- Measures to ensure the vitality of genuine news reporting; fake news cannot be allowed vacant space in which to flourish.
-- Transparency and accountability around algorithms and personal data. Recent European initiatives would require platform companies to keep data stored within the national boundaries where it was collected and empower individuals to view what’s collected on them.
Finally, the best safeguard against incursions on commonweal is a truly inclusive democracy, meaning tireless promotion of economic opportunity and social empathy.
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