Deputy Speaker Charles Chong announced on Thursday, January 11, the formation of a ten-member Select Committee of Members of Parliament (MPs) to address the issue of fake news.
Several socio-political commentators have weighed in on the issue since news of the Committee broke, questioning how the government intends to curb fake news besides postulating what exactly might constitute fake news online. Some have even called on the authorities to look at “falsehoods” the government itself may have propagated before taking measures to combat such news broadcast by others.
One such voice belongs to local filmmaker Martyn See, who posted a list entitled “Top 10 Fake News that the PAP keeps perpetuating” online long before the Committee was set up, back in November last year.
In the post, which he has re-shared on his Facebook page in the wake of the formation of the Select Committee, See lists the following ten statements as supposed falsehoods spread by the ruling party:
1. Singapore was a fishing village before 1965. 2. Singapore is a meritocracy. 3. Singapore has parliamentary democracy. 4. Elections in Singapore are free and fair. 5. The mainstream press is fair, objective and responsible. 6. High salaries attract competent and honest politicians. 7. Foreign talents create more jobs. 8. There is rule of law in Singapore. 9. The ISD do not torture detainees. 10. Lee Kuan Yew is Singapore’s founding father.
Fresh development, wonder how would SG users rank stuff written by our MSM?
Facebook will let users rank which news sources the find most trustworthy
https://www.abc15.com/news/national/facebook-will-let-users-rank-which-news-sources-the-find-most-trustworthy
Facebook wants to make sure its users aren't duped by stories from untrustworthy news publications. So it's asking users which news publications they trust.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday the social media network is using surveys to rate news organizations and assign them trust scores. It will use those scores, along with other factors, to decide how much to show a source in people's news feeds.
"There's too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today," Zuckerberg said in a post. "Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them," he said.
The company decided to use community input to rank news sources in an attempt to be as objective as possible, Zuckerberg said.
The surveys will ask a "diverse and representative" sample of Facebook users if they've heard of a news outlet and how much they trust it.
News outlets that score well can expect to see their stories to be more widely distributed on Facebook, while those with lower scores might see less activity. The new program won't affect how much news people see in their feed, according to the company.
The company said the move won't impact publishers based on how big they are or their ideological leanings.
The scores won't be made public and will be one of many factors the company will consider when weighing news feed placement. The new scoring system is only rolling out in the U.S. to start, but the company plans to eventually expand it globally.
Facebook says it is also increasing its focus on local news in 2018, and it adding a section specifically to read about events and stories nearby.
The changes come a week after Facebook announced it will show users posts from friends and family and fewer from brands and companies to increase "meaningful interactions" on the site.
The social network has long struggled with fake or misleading news on its platform. Facebook joined Twitter and Google in front of Congress late last year to answer tough questions on how the network was used to spread misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Maybe Mediacorpse should host a fake news awards like the US heh
Surely Ah Loong must be competent, isn't that's why he is the highest paid leader in the entire world? ;)
The biggest piece of fake news now being trumpeted by the toilet times is that LHL is a competent LEE-der.