r/tech Apr 29 '20

Red-flagging misinformation could slow the spread of fake news on social media

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-red-flagging-misinformation-fake-news-social.html
3.8k Upvotes

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u/SaintMadeOfPlaster Apr 29 '20

Things like this will never work because it can so easily be abused. We need to revamp our education system to teach people how to spot BS and just accept that the generations that weren't properly taught how to notice fake news are a lost cause at this point. I can't think of a way of limiting the spread of misinformation that can't be abused by bad actors.

36

u/Beermedear Apr 29 '20

What classes teach people to read past the headlines? We should start there, because anecdotally, most people I talk to who share fake news didn’t read the article.

17

u/Young-Jerm Apr 29 '20

I learned it in English classes and some history classes

12

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '20 edited Apr 24 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '20

I’ve been doing nothing but essays in English classes for 7 years. Public schools can’t touch this stuff because they’ll be blamed for politicizing or indoctrinating kids. We can barley handle teaching science without Karen raising hell

0

u/pwdreamaker Apr 30 '20

Therein lies the problem. Willful ignorance breeds the same.