A couple of the blog posts reference the conversation and controversy about the detrimental impact of “fake news” stories going viral prior to the elections. As part of this there has been a call for Facebook and other social media sites to intervene and more strongly moderate the content of Facebook postings. I share the concern about the ability of the right to massively disseminate damaging false information. However, I am also very concerned about the likelihood for greater efforts to control and limit our access to information with a Trump presidency – and think it’s important to consider critically the implications of joining in with calls for greater control. I am sharing Robert Parry’s article from this perspective. Below is a brief quote and link to the full article.
“In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, a hot new issue – raised by President Obama in an international setting on Thursday and touted on The New York Times’ front page on Friday – is the problem of “fake news” being disseminated on the Internet. Major Internet companies, such as Google and Facebook, are being urged to censor such articles and to punish alleged violators. Also, teams of supposedly “responsible” news providers and technology giants are being assembled to police this alleged problem and decide what is true and what is not. But therein lies the more serious problem: who gets to decide what is real and what is not real? And – in an age when all sides propagate propaganda – when does conformity in support of a mainstream “truth” become censorship of reasonable skepticism?”
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