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Filloux: A credibility scorecard Liberal democracies are being tested around the world by the rapid diffusion of misleading or false information designed to influence voters. It has happened in France , Catalonia , the U.K. , and, of course, the U.S. Many have proposed--for example, the World Economic Forum --that two of the most powerful vehicles for spreading information, Facebook and Google, should be responsible for filtering out material that is demonstrably false or misleading. Versi�n en espa�ol. But it turns out that this is not easy to do. False information is often irresistibly appealing and moves too fast to be stopped. Why we're Still in the Dark about Facebook's Fight Against Fake News -- Mother Jones Nine experts offer opinions on how to fix Facebook -- New York Times Not an editor, but a scorecard What's more, it is hard to define false news in a way that can be automated by algorithms. Journalist and media consultant Frederic Filloux has developed the News...

Amid all the debate about what is true and what is f--- news, I am reminded of a remarkable journalistic moment that showed how hard it is to know when someone is kidding or serious. And how you can be sincere but spread false information. Dowd (Fred R. Conrad photo, New York Times) It was early in 2009, the first months of the Obama presidency, and Maureen Dowd, the sly and witty New York Times columnist, put tongue in cheek to describe how she had gained exclusive access to classified testimony of a supposedly secret meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In the scene created by Dowd, Democrats on the committee, led by Dianne Feinstein, are grilling former Vice President Dick Cheney about the torture methods he and President George W. Bush approved to interrogate terrorism suspects. Dowd dropped hints all through the column that it was a put-on. The first clue should have been that a columnist was playing the uncharacteristic role of an investigative reporter writing about lea...

Traditional news organizations made a deal with the devil when they turned to social media and search-engine optimization to gain digital audience and revenue. They recruited "community managers" to raise their profile on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like. They tagged their articles to raise them in search results. The devilish side of the deal was that presumably ethical news media were trying to sell credibility and verified information -- facts -- within a turbulent ocean of emotion. On social media, feelings are more important than facts. People want to declare who they are and what they believe. So they "like" and share stuff that reinforces their view of who they are and what they agree with. Emotions predominate over facts. Versi�n en espa�ol Articles that are popular, shared, and linked to will rise to the top of search results in Google and other search engines. It's easy to share or like something that reinforces your view of who you are. Mis...