San Francisco, Two leading fact-checking agencies have ended their partnerships with Facebook, striking a significant blow to the network’s efforts to fight fake news, media reports said. The social network had paid the Associated Press and Snopes to combat its misinformation crisis. But both confirmed they stopped checking articles at[Read More…]
Tag: Fake news
Rajasthan Police smashes claims of a “Pakistan flag being waved” in Congress march
In a video that circulated online, green flags were seen being waved in a Congress rally. Claims of the flag being that of Pakistan got heavily shared across social media platform. Alert ?? This video ?️ circulating on #socialmedia claims that there is a Pakistan flag being waved in a[Read More…]
Football club falsely declares one of their former players as ‘dead’
In a shocking incident, the Leinster Senior League club “Ballybrack FC”, based out of Dublin, Ireland falsely pronounced one of their players as ‘dead’. The football club informed the Leinster Senior League on November 22 that Frenando Nuno La Funte Saiz had died in a road accident. The club’s match against[Read More…]
WhatsApp selects 20 teams to curb fake news globally, including India
New Delhi: Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday announced that it has selected 20 research teams worldwide – including experts from India and those of Indian origin — who will work towards how misinformation spreads and what additional steps the mobile messaging platform could take to curb fake news. Shakuntala Banaji from[Read More…]
Twitter accounts linked to fake news still thriving: Study
San Francisco: Twitter still remains a hotbed for accounts spreading fake news, suggests a new study that looked into how fake and conspiracy news flourished on the microblogging site both before and after the 2016 US presidential election. More than 80 per cent of the Twitter accounts linked to spread[Read More…]
BBC to offer ‘reality check’ service during 2019 elections to counter fake news
Fake news is used as a political tool to manipulate populations in countries where elections are due. This is happening in India as well, says Jamie Angus, Director of BBC World Service Group. Several people have lost their lives in the past one year by lynch mobs after rumours of[Read More…]
FIR against 3 for spreading fake news of Muslim man raping his Hindu sister
After since Rakshabandhan, two photographs – one featuring a woman tying rakhi to a Muslim man, another portraying hazy women face – went viral all over social media with the caption claiming featured Muslim man raped the Hindu girl next day after she had tied him Rakhi. On August 28,[Read More…]
NRI businessman gets $1.2 mn compensation over fake news
An Indo-Canadian businessman, who is originally from Bhuj, Gujarat, has been awarded $1.2 million in damages after he was defamed in a series of fake news articles instigated by a prominent American blockchain investor. It is one of the biggest compensations of its kind in Canada. Vancouver-based Altaf Nazerali had[Read More…]
Kerala floods: Here’s how Twitter can save you from fake news
If you are in Kerala and are affected by the devastating floods, using Twitter may help you steer clear of fake news. When communication services are limited and internet connectivity is poor, using the data-friendly “Twitter Lite” can help you connect easily with government agencies, relief organisations, media and volunteers.[Read More…]
Alert! WhatsApp message ‘PM gives Rs 10,000 to girls’ is fake
Recently, a fake WhatsApp message has gone viral across the nation claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving Rs 10,000 to girls between the age of 1-18 years under ‘Sukanya Samridhi Yojana’. The message also claims that in order to avail the benefits of the scheme, applicants must register[Read More…]
New York Times defends tech writer Sarah Jeong accused of being racist for old tweets
San Francisco: The New York Times has defended its new hire, Sarah Jeong, who was dragged into a racism controversy for tweets she wrote from 2013 to early 2015. The paper announced this week that it had hired Jeong as the lead technology writer for its editorial board. But soon[Read More…]
WhatsApp fake news: Delhi based professor working on app to fix problem
In the wake of increased crime due to the circulation of fake WhatsApp videos and images, a Delhi based Professor Ponnurangam Kumaraguru and his team is working on a machine-learning based solution. If the experiment goes successful, it is believed that the fake videos and images could be identified with[Read More…]
Facebook loses $120 billion in market value over slow growth
Facing global backlash over the massive Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook stock nosedived 20 per cent — wiping over $120 billion off the company’s market value — after its revenue and user growth in the second quarter of 2018 fell short of investor expectations. The social media giant late on[Read More…]
Myanmar condemns false news of demonetisation
Myanmar’s Presidential Office has denied that it has issued an executive order to demonetise banknotes, saying that legal action will be taken against perpetrators of the fake news, media reported on Wednesday. Director-General and Spokesman of the President’s Office U Zaw Htay refuted the false executive order proliferating on Facebook,[Read More…]
WhatsApp to bring fake news verification model Verificado in India
In its effort to prevent misuse of the platform ahead of general election in India in 2019, Whatsapp is planning to bring a fake news verification model, Verificado, in India. The model was recently used in Mexico Presidential election, where users attempt to spread rumours to Verificado’s Whatsapp account were[Read More…]
You can forward message to five chats only: WhatsApp
As the government served WhatsApp with a second notice asking it to check the spread of fake and provocative content, the Facebook-owned platform has said it is launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone in India. In India where people forward more messages, photos, and videos[Read More…]
WhatsApp rumours kill 32 year old Google techie
Karnataka :A 32-year-old software engineer was beaten to death and four others including a Qatar national were seriously injured over WhatsApp rumours of a child kidnapping in Karnataka’s Bidar. The police said that it all started after the man from Qatar was seen distributing chocolates to local children. The police have[Read More…]
WhatsApp’s ‘Forwarded’ feature: identifies message as ‘Forwarded’ or originally written by sender
Amid the spate of fake news crises around the globe, WhatsApp has moved a step further towards resolving the issue by launching a new feature as ‘Forwarded’, which will identify whether a certain message has been forwarded or created by the sender. Any forwarded message will have a small ‘Forwarded’[Read More…]
WhatsApp concerned about fake messages circulation, announced to fund research in the case
Due to increasing number of reported killings, lead by rapid and wide spread of misinformation across the country through WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service said it would fund research to find out why misinformation spreads on the platform like wildfire in India. WhatAapp, which has over 200 million monthly active[Read More…]
‘Satire’ often being used as cover for fake news: Facebook
San Francisco: While admitting limitations of fact-checkers in fighting fake news, Facebook has said the problem is often compounded by some publishers who spread the false news on the social media platform in the garb of being satirical. Sometimes people try to call their sites ‘satire’ as a cover for[Read More…]
Facebook shrinks doubtful stories to fight fake news
San Francisco: After Facebook’s red warning labels to flag fake news backfired, the social networking giant is now literally sizing down the doubtful stories to prevent the triumph of falsehood on its platform. As part of its new strategy to combat fake news, Facebook wants its users to miss these stories[Read More…]
Spreading fake news to smear rivals may backfire, warn researchers
Even in this age of fake news, planting false stories to smear rivals may backfire if you are caught in the act, warn researchers. Companies that spread fake news against their competitors ultimately experience the brunt of negative publicity and reputation damage, said the study published in the Journal of[Read More…]
Facebook, Google join ‘The Trust Project’ to fight fake news
In their bid to fight fake news and help readers identify trustworthy news sources, Facebook, Google, Twitter and several media organisations have joined the non-partisan “The Trust Project”. “The Trust Project” is led by award-winning journalist Sally Lehrman of Santa Clara University’s Markkula Centre for Applied Ethics. Starting from Friday,[Read More…]
BJP cyber soldiers busted again over fake news and victim shaming
Failing to learn from mistakes, the Bharatiya Janta Party leaders and online warriors have once again called embarrassment upon themselves. Funnily, in less than a day’s span, the party leaders and their supporters posted two misleading pictures online. In the first case, BJP spokesperson and fashion designer Shaina NC and[Read More…]
Facebook disallows modified link previews to combat fake news
As fake news continue to infiltrate social media sites and misleading many, Facebook is launching a new feature that can prevent fake news from making it on the social network. In the process of elimination of fake news, it has started killing non-publisher Pages’ ability to edit the link previews[Read More…]