Facebook and Apple Disagree on How to Curb Fake News for U.S. Midterms
Facebook and Apple Disagree on How to Curb Fake News for
U.S. Midterms
By Riley Griffin 3 July 2018, 9:37 AM
(Bloomberg) -- Apple and Facebook have figured out how to
keep us glued to their devices and platforms. But they haven’t figured out how
to curb the misinformation that plagued them during the 2016 election and have
struggled to regain public trust. And now, in the run-up to the 2018 midterms,
they certainly don’t agree on a solution.
Last week, Apple launched a human-curated political news
section to help readers steer clear of falsehoods surrounding the midterms. The
company’s announcement reignited a fiery debate with Facebook about whether
tech giants should hire people to curate news or rely on algorithms instead.
Apple has used human editors to curate news content in
“Top News” and other specialized sections since the application first launched
in 2015, and said it will continue to do so for the midterm elections news
section. The company uses a combination of human editors and machine learning
to manage more tailored content in personalized feeds for users.
“News was kind of going a little crazy,” said Apple Inc.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook at the recent Fortune CEO Initiative, subtly
referring to Facebook’s struggle with the foreign actors such as Russia,
profiteers and bots that took advantage of its News Feed algorithms for
financial and political gain during the presidential election. “We felt the top
stories should be selected by humans,” Cook said.
Apple’s midterm election section will feature material
from the Washington Post, Politico, and Axios, in addition to coverage from
other sources the company describes as “trustworthy.” But critics contend this
coverage is limited, given that Apple’s curators will only promote articles
from a few legacy outlets. The inclusion of the Trump administration-friendly
Fox News also struck a chord.
The upcoming Apple News election product strikes all the
right notes on design (human-edited, well-structured) but the very first news
source they mention is Fox News, indicating they have the same fear of
right-wing liars as all the other tech platforms. https://t.co/0591oorqXf
— Anil Dash (@anildash) June 25, 2018
Dan Gillmor
@dangillmor
Apple has always been a control freak. That applies to
news. Here's a new press release in which the company says,…
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sent via TweetDeck.
Charlie Beckett@CharlieBeckett
No agonising over definitions of what ‘quality’
journalism means from Apple. Their midterm elections curated news h…
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sent via Twitter for iPhone.
View original tweet.
Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs once called
Fox News a “destructive force in our society,” according to Walter Isaacson’s
biography of the tech mogul. The company’s current leadership contends that all
content featured in the midterm election news section, including articles from
Fox News, will be vetted for high-quality reporting and sourcing.
“This election season, our editors will highlight the
most important, rigorously reported news to help you understand key races and
your fellow voters,” wrote Apple News Editor-in-Chief Lauren Kern in a note on
the news app. “We won’t shy away from controversial topics, but our goal is to
illuminate, not enrage.”
But human editors and algorithms can display repetitive
patterns of behavior when curating the news, warned Pete Brown, the author of a
June study published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism that examined
Apple News’ editorial decisions on Twitter and in newsletters.
“Humans, like algorithms, are prone to habit,” Brown
wrote. “Apple News may have fallen into a pattern that Facebook and others have
been trying to avoid: editorial bias.”
The study, which analyzed almost 7,000 news
recommendations made by Apple News, found that editors had a strong tendency to
favor a select group of legacy media outlets. For example, editors in the U.S.
showed a preference for the New York Times over smaller, regionally oriented
outlets.
The study didn’t analyze any news recommendations
featured on the app itself—which is the primary means by which Apple delivers
news to users.
Apple declined to comment on its plans for the midterms.
However, while human curators may display patterned
behavior in selecting certain news articles, they can explain their decision
processes. Computers can’t.
“There is always going to be a greater degree of
transparency with human editors than with algorithms,” Brown said. “We can ask,
Why are you choosing these publications over another one? What are the criteria
in which you’re making these decisions?”
“Whatever happens, there’s going to be criticism from
both political sides”
During the last presidential campaign, Facebook relied on
human editors to curate the popular news topics listed in its “Trending”
section. But when the company received criticism from conservatives who felt it
was prioritizing liberal-leaning content, the company replaced its editors with
algorithms.
“Making these changes to the product allows our team to
make fewer individual decisions about topics,” Facebook said in a statement
after it dismantled the team of editors in August 2016.
But those algorithms have also brought Facebook a
whirlwind of congressional hearings and headaches. In recent months, the
company abandoned its automated “Trending” feature and restructured the News
Feed algorithm to rank news sources on a trustworthiness scale determined by
users.
Fox News has benefited from Facebook’s algorithmic
changes to highlight “trustworthy” sources. This past April, the outlet
generated the most engagement on Facebook, outpacing sources such as CNN, NBC
and the New York Times, according to social media analytics company NewsWhip.
Among other attempts to curb misinformation, Facebook
recently announced the expansion of its fact-checking operation and the
creation of new automated “Breaking News” labels for quality content.
Media critics and journalists take issue with what they
deem Facebook’s lack of transparency.
“Algorithmic transparency is basically nonexistent,”
Brown said. “We know very little about how these black boxes curate news.”
Facebook couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
With the midterms just months away, the tech giants are
wary of backlash from both ends of the political spectrum, no matter what
decision they make. “Whatever happens, there’s going to be criticism from both
political sides,” Brown said. “That’s all the more reason to be transparent
about that curation process."
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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