Fake news a democratic crisis for UK, MPs warn

[G_j]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44967650?ns_campaign=bbcnews&ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=facebook

The UK faces a "democratic crisis" with voters being targeted with "pernicious views" and data being manipulated, a parliamentary committee is set to warn.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee has been investigating disinformation and fake news following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

In its first report, MPs will suggest social media companies should face tougher regulation or a new tax.
It also proposes measures to combat election interference.

The MPs' report comes after months of investigating the impact of technology giants and how people are affected by the rise in fake news on social media.

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According to the leaked report, MPs say "our democracy is at risk and now is the time to act".

..more..

[Chris Studio]

1. Too late

re Brexit.

The UK has essentially decided to shoot itself in the face, despite the actual referendum being manipulated by fake news and illegal spending on the Leave side.

I hope they sort this out for the future, but that future looks pretty dim either way.

[2naSalit]

2. Rupert Murdoch has been

messing with them for as long as he's been messing with us, ever since cable teevee started getting big. He wants to be the ONE who controls all messaging on the planet.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

4. Yes! Rightwing disinformation media is a bigger problem than fake news

Fox, Limbaugh, Hewitt, Breitbart, WSJ reach a much bigger audience than fake news.

The Russians just piggybacked on an existing disinformation media funded by billionaires.


Ps Murdoch ran his propaganda in Britain BEFORE the US.
He bought the NY Post in the 70s, but 1970s and 80s Murdoch was focused on the UK and Thatcher. It wasn’t till late 90s/2000s that he started Fox and bought the WSJ.

[2naSalit]

5. Yup.

Thanks for the timeline info, I can't remember the details from so long ago. Yeah, I knew that. Didn't his sons try to kill him or get caught plotting to back in the 1980s?

[LittleGirl]

3. I think this is very important

"online political advertisements should have a digital imprint stating who was responsible, as is required with printed leaflets and advertisements

for example, I think that they should have a tag on each "bot" post so that we can ignore the "bot" post and tag it as spam. That way, we can really tell if a profile is fake or a bot.

right?