Facebook buys British AI firm to combat "fake news"

in #funny6 years ago (edited)

If you read that headline and rolled your eyes, then you're doing it right.

coffeebok.jpg

Facebook is not a news company and never will be. Stop trying.

Further reading here: CNBC.com

Anyone that's used Facebox knows that it's an endless shitty feed of garbage, memes, ads and bullshit interspersed with ads. It is not a smoke-filled newsroom filled with reporters on typewriters. Instead imagine a corporate boardroom with very wealthy people thinking about how to extract the last few drops of value from an already insanely overvalued company. Why not pretend to do something useful?

We also need to talk about this term "fake news" which seems to have gone over everyone's head. Why they using a term coined by Donald Trump to mean the exact companies that have taken it upon themselves to "cleanse fake news". CNN, FOX, and now social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are the SOURCE of fake news according to Trumpo. So why take up that mantle and run with it? It's a reaction that's totally tone-deaf and missing the point.

Here is the jist of it:

El Presidente Trump: CNN, You're fake news!

Media: Everyone but us is fake news. Let's deal with this pressing issue by using heavy-handed censorship!

If someone accuses you of being a total liar, you can either re-evaluate your paradigm and consider your compulsion to promote half-truths... or wrap yourself in the flag of truthfulness and go out on an inquisition, accusing everyone else of being in the business of selling lies?

I think it's clear what they are trying to do here. "Fake news" will be likely be any of the following:

  • Anyone writing negative things about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook or its subsidiaries

  • Any non-approved "conspiracy theories" that suggest the USA isn't a wholesome, pure and benevolent power

  • Suggestions that Facebook, Google, etc. are spying on their users and selling them out for profit

  • Talking about how news reporters are paid actors that repeat stories sent up from corporate HQ

  • Putting ketchup on your macaroni and cheese is healthy and normal

"Fake news" is one of those terms that should have just died with Trump's other verbal diarrhea blasts. Instead it lives on and on, like a slow-moving zombie, smelling of decay and rot but continuing its steady and march towards news outlets everywhere.