Social media is one of the most significant platforms for connecting people across the diverse geographical locations of the globe. It provides the global society with an efficient interaction platform for socializing and passing news and global events. I am one who relies on social media for information regarding the critical news and world events. This is because the information is conveyed in due time and quickly spreads across a wide range of people. Moreover, the stories provided by social media are subjected to suggestions, complaints, and recommendations hence creating an interactive platform that provides the most relevant feedback.
Nonetheless, my reliance on the social media as a resource for news and global events is relatively changing due to the compromised credibility of the relayed information. Such compromised credibility is influenced by the presentation of the fake story and the exploitation of the data produced by the powerful and wealthier individuals promoting their self-interests (Entous, Dwoskin & Timberg, 2017). Therefore, the reliance on social media is considerably compromised as it may lead to misinformation hence the belief os non-factual information. The most concerning issue is that the owners of these social media sites have not been able to implement effective measures to curb the increased development of fake, non-credible and inauthentic news.
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The Obligation of Social Media Sites
Social media sites such as Facebook are obliged to ensure that either the posted news stories are accurate or alert the users that some of the published news is inaccurate or even fake. In this case, the founders of the social media sites are obliged to be more proactive in the identification and removal of the incorrect and counterfeit users' feeds. One of the steps that can be taken in pursuit if promoting credible and authentic information is adding warning labels to stories that have been identified as inaccurate or fake. Moreover, the social media platforms should develop algorithms that are bound to automatically detect fake news and flag them out (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).
Subsequently, such news should be taken down and the source sites banned. This would ensure that the increased rate of fake news has been substantially mitigated. On the other hand, to ensure that the posted news is accurate, the social media platforms should review the accuracy of the ‘related articles' that are often suggested for readers. Such an approach would decrease the vulnerability of users to inaccurate information and fake news. Therefore, it is solely on the social media sites to ensure that posted news stories emerge from credible sources hence reducing the chances of presenting false news to the users.
Opinion
My opinion is influenced by the fact that the sources of fake news on the social media sites have found a way to exploit the readers and go without accounting for their mistakes. The inaccurate and phony news could lead to a global disaster if not national which makes this issue an alarming one to the social, economic, political, and cultural contexts of the worldwide society (Bakir & McStay, 2018). The social media sites have the primary servers and database to ensure that the producers of fake news are identified, and the information is deleted. Moreover, they can also implement legal consequences for the providers of inaccurate news. The social media sites are to be blamed for the prevalence of fake news and world events across the society.
Conclusion
Social media is evidently a platform for connecting people and sharing information across the vast array of geographical locations of the world. Nonetheless, the credibility of this information and world events has been significantly compromised due to the emergence of fake news from bloggers and writers who are influenced by their selfish needs. Since the fake news could be catastrophic to the political, social, or economic factors of the society, it is relatively crucial to develop and implement effective counter measures.
References
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives , 31 (2), 211-36.
Bakir, V., & McStay, A. (2018). Fake news and the economy of emotions: Problems, causes, solutions. Digital Journalism , 6 (2), 154-175.
Entous, A., Dwoskin, E., & Timberg, C. (2017). Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook. Washington Post .
