Fake Nancy Pelosi video hijacked attention - just as intended

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This example is useful as it's quite current....and there're quite a few issues here:

=can we trust internet companies to weed out fake news?

YouTube removed the video, but only after it amassed thousands of views. Twitter and Facebook did not remove the video (Facebook eventually added "fact-check" links to the clips).

And it's why the company struggles to articulate whether it's a platform or a media company or something else entirely...As a platform, Facebook has no real responsibility for the veracity of its content; as a media company, it most certainly does.

=Note the example of 'deepfake' where the image was doctored to look real

the rise of political misinformation, filter bubbles, the future of "deepfake" videos and the Internet's penchant to warp reality.

=by bringing people of the same political allegiance together (in this case, those who are pro-Trump and anti-Pelosi) and spread propaganda messages or lies

Facebook, the platform of origin for this video, did exactly what it was designed to do. It brought people with similar interests together, incubated vibrant communities that spawned intense discussion and then gave those communities the tools to amplify their messages loudly across the Internet. The rest of the social media ecosystem followed suit.

=the fact that those from the White House are guilty of spreading the fake news say two things: having someone from the govt spreading it lends credibility to the fake news and lessen suspicions with regard to its veracity; but it also goes to show the potential of fake news to dupe anyone, including those who should know better....

the abnormality of a presidential administration and political party spreading such brazen propaganda.

=note the colourful language here....describing the futility of tradiitonal media to counter fake news. When traditional media tries to rectify the fake news, it only brings more attention to the fake news. And given that our inherent prejudice makes us blind to reason, our increased exposure to the fake news via traditiona media only gives us more ammunition with which to jsutify and reinforce our exisitng bias...Hence, the more traditional media tries to fight fake news circulated online, the more it hastens the spread of fake news by bringing it to the attention of more people who will lap it up due to their inherent bias.

"It's like we're supposed to fight oxygen but our only tools are matches."

Note the closing BANG echoes the handbook comment made in an earlier part of the article.

Qn:  Can the media ever be relied upon to convey the truth? (Cam. 2003)