Cheng 1

Kevin Cheng

Professor Colombo

UWRT 1104-007

28 February 2017

What is the Effect of Fake News and How Should It Be Contained?

What is fake news and what impact has it had in 2016?

How has fake news spread so much?

What impact can fake news have?

What has been done against fake news?

Why do people create fake news?

Works Cited
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What is fake news and what impact has it had in 2016?

Writer Angie Holan and her research team, defines fake news as made-up stuff,
masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread
online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word (Holan).
She also states that the two Presidential candidates and their supporters have caused a rise
in the spread of fake news.

Some notable fake news subjects during the Presidential Race were:
o Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring out of a pizza shop.
o Democrats want to impose Islamic law in Florida.
o Thousands at Trump Rally in Manhattan chant, We hate Muslims, we hate
blacks, we want our great country back again.

Although fact-checkers deemed that Trump has said more false statements, the exit polls
on Election Day revealed that Americans felt both Clinton and Trump were about equally
dishonest and untrustworthy (61% to 64%, respectively).

A few professionals have agreed that fake news may have influenced the election process.
It has caused uncertainty, and/or people to support a candidate based on fake news on the
rival candidate.

Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that fake news was killing peoples minds (Glacer), and
that tech companies needed to launch a campaign against fake news. He believes that
tech companies have the tools to curb fake news, and that the best method to use is a
massive public-service announcement campaign.

These sources suggest that fake news has negatively affected events, most recently the
Presidential Race. A few experts; professors, a former CIA officer, and a tech giant CEO, have
called for prevention methods of fake news.

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How has fake news spread so much?

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Angie Holan wrote, in 2016, most viral lies spread on Facebook. They were reinforced
by Google searches, in which stories from dubious sites jumped to the top of your screen
based on traffic (Holan). Although fake news spread mostly through Facebook and
Google, it was unintentional.

The New York Times say Facebook and Google have been grappling with a widespread
backlash over how their sites may have spread rumors on a vast scale, and how little
responsibility they take for any of the content that appears on their platforms (Higgins
A1). This quote implies that these two companies have unintentionally had a hand in the
spreading of fake news.

Garett Sloane wrote that Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter were under intense scrutiny
(Sloane 0006) for fueling a mess of misinformation on social media sites (Sloane
0006). This shows that social media sites have been involved in spreading fake news.

These sources have stated directly that most fake news have been spread, unintentionally,
through Facebook and Google. Other sites, such as Twitter and Reddit, have been mentioned as
well. Most fake articles start on Facebook, which is then reinforced by Google searches from
incredulous readers.

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What impact can fake news have?

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A man carried an assault rifle into a pizza shop to investigate a fake news story. Police
say that he came to the establishment to self-investigate Pizza Gate (a fictitious online
conspiracy theory) (Bohn). The man then cleared out the restaurant, in which no one
was hurt. The police later arrested him without incident.

The owner and employees of the pizza shop claimed to have been repeatedly harassed
and threatened online, despite the owner denying the accusations. The owner later said,
what happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories
comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a
moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods
right away (Bohn).

An article claiming that former Israeli Defense Minister Yaalon threatened to destroy
(Pakistan) with a nuclear attack (Westcott), led Pakistani Defense Minister Asif to
respond with Israel forgets Pakistan is a Nuclear State too (Westcott). Later on, Israel
cleared the confusion by saying the statements were false, to which Asif responded with
their nuclear program was deterrence to protect our freedom (Westcott).

These articles have shown actual events that have taken place due to fake news. Both events had
the potential to become very deadly, even as far as nuclear war. The articles help support the
movement against fake news.

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What has been done against fake news?

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has claimed that fake news is killing peoples minds (Glaser)
and that tech companies need to launch a campaign. Cook has expressed that tech
companies have the tools to counter fake news, and offered a solution of a massive
public-service announcement campaign.

Facebook and Google, who had an unintentional hand in spreading fake news, have
introduced new policies to combat fake news.
o Facebook changed its Trending Topics section a part of social media that some
have blamed for spreading false information (Wakabayashi) to promote articles
from reliable sources.
o Google expanded a current policy to include sites impersonating news
organizations (Wakabayashi). They also reviewed 550 sites suspected of
misrepresenting content to users, including impersonating news organizations
(Wakabayashi), and took action against 340 of those sites, resulting in the banning
of over 200 publishers.

Facebook has a plan to cut off fake news sites, and plans to label them. They also plan to
discourage creating fake news by helping to restore programmatic ad revenue to
legitimate publishers that have seen bogus sites siphon off marketing dollars (Sloane
0006).

These sources have suggested that the best way to combat fake news is through tech companies.
Apples CEO has called for an anti-fake news campaign, while Facebook and Google have
already taken steps towards curbing fake news. The fact that these companies are some of the
biggest tech companies should draw attention to the seriousness of fake news.

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Why do people create fake news?

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According to writer Angie Holan and her research team, creators of fake news generate
money from the advertising system when people visit their site. They found a man from
Los Angeles, who had made between $10,000 and $30,000 a month (Holan), running a
string of fake news.

The New York Times have found two people; a Canadian satire writer and a Georgian
(Nation of Georgia) computer science student, who both ran fake news sites during the
elections. They both found articles that were pro-Trump generated more traffic, thus
more money. The Canadian described it as its all Trump, people go nuts for it
(Higgins A1). The Georgian described it as my audience likes Trump, I don't want to
write bad things about Trump. If I write fake stories about Trump, I lose my audience
(Higgins A1).

Both creators in Canada and Georgia of fake news admitted directly that the purpose of
writing fake news was to earn extra money. The man in Los Angeles made a large
amount of money as well. These three people, all in separate countries, have proven the
sole reason of fake news is money.

Facebooks VP of Product Management, Adam Mosseri, said we've found that a lot
of fake news is financially motivated. Spammers make money by masquerading as well-
known news organizations, and posting hoaxes that get people visit to their sites, which
are often mostly ads (Sloane 0006)

These three sources have revealed the only reason behind fake news was money. All the
writers have admitted that they were only doing it for the money, which is earned by the
advertisements viewed by the audience. These three separate accounts confirm the reasoning
behind fake news.

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Works Cited
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Bohn, K., Allman, D., & Clary, G. Gun-brandishing man sought to investigate fake news story

site, police say. CNN, Cable News Network, 04 Dec. 2016,

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/04/politics/gun-incident-fake-news/.

Holan, Angie Drobnic. PolitiFact's 2016 Lie of the Year: Fake news. PolitiFact, 13 Dec. 2016,

www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/dec/13/2016-lie-year-fake-news/.

Glaser, April. Apple CEO Tim Cook says fake news is killing peoples minds and tech needs

to launch a counterattack. Recode, 12 Feb. 2016,

www.recode.net/2017/2/12/14591522/apple-ceo-tim-cook-tech-launch-campaign-fake-

news-fact-check.

Higgins, Andrew, et al. Websites Hit A Gold Mine In Fake News. New York Times, vol. 166,

no. 57428, 26 Nov. 2016, p. A1. Academic Search Complete.

Sloane, Garett. INSIDE THE PLAN TO COMBAT FAKE NEWS. Advertising Age, vol. 87,

no. 24, 19 Dec. 2016, p.0006. Academic Search Complete.

Wakabayashi, Daisuke, and Mike Issac. In Race Against Fake News, Google and Facebook

Stroll to the Starting Line. The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2017,

www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/technology/google-facebook-fake-news.html?_r=0.

Westcott, Ben. Duped by fake news story, Pakistani minister threatens nuclear war with

Israel. CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Dec. 2016,

www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/middleeast/israel-pakistan-fake-news-nuclear/.

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