Fake News and Globalisation
1) What similarities do you notice between the different countries outlined in the article and their problems with fake news?
The main similarity seen amongst those countries in terms of fake news, is that it is believed. There has been a rise in fake news all over the country, for example, Germany had an instance where a 13 year old girl was legibly 'raped' by middle eastern immigrants. This was later shut down by the police of Germany, however the point is, is that these countries have been hit hard with such fake news that it is believed as the case study mentioned previously had resulted in riots taking place.
2) Is fake news an inevitable consequence of the "culture of freedom and innovation" that the internet has brought with it? Is there a way to stop it?
I do believe that to a large extent the internet will provide an inevitable leeway for people all over the world to share their values and ideologies through the content they publish. The internet has given audiences so much power, that it has been exploited to such an extent that people wish they never had the internet. Although the internet has provided us with nothing but more information/consumption and production, it has ultimately created a new form of cons. People simply because they have the 'freedom' to do it, will take advantage of this source and use it. And I believe the one way to stop such content is for Google to hire companies to motorise each post, fact checking them before they go on to the web. This will essentially make the internet a much reliable place than it currently is and people will have no choice but to stop posting false info.
New York Times and the creation of fake news
1) Which fake news stories were particularly successful for Beqa Latsabidze, the 22-year-old student in Tbilisi, Georgia, who tried to make money from web articles on Trump?
The one news story/agenda that soared views and ad revenue was stories related to the US presidential election. Not just any news about the election, news that specifically targeted Donald Trump and making stories about what he'd do if he 'won' the election. This student had essentially hit a 'goldmine' of things to talk about regarding his 'fake news' even John Egan had been faced with the desire to do the same. With the use of wider knowledge the student knew that the US election and particular Donald Trump were the 'hot topic' on every ones mind and any news that came with that regard would receive tremendous coverage by audiences and institutions. By taking what people are sensitive to, and creating stories based off of them, he essentially made money through his fake news scheme.
2) How much can Facebook and Google be blamed for this global rise in fake news?
I do not believe that these 'big' institutions are to be blamed for any of these large atrocities of fake news flourishing. They are simply the network, they create a pathway for people to get the information, not to directly produce information and give it out. Ir is essentially a platform for us, to share our views and values. However, this 'freedom' has been exploited and rather it being the platform itself being blamed (which in this case is FB and Google), the blame should be on the users who use the option to share content but don't proof-read their work. There are so many users on both platforms that it will be difficult to monitorise each and every post made in order to check if they are all factually correct. I do believe that it is less of the institutions fault and is more of the users fault as they are the ones essentially who are creating this content and publishing it for the whole world to see.
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