Travis Mendez

Mrs. Stro

ERWC Period 6

22 October 2021

Fake News Essay

False information or fake news has always been a problem that people have faced for decades

upon decades but fake news has become an ever so increasing problem since the conception of the

internet. The internet was composed of technology companies that were made with the intention to make

the lives of people easier so that communication and the access to information was faster than ever before.

As a result of the recent years of political polarization and cyber terrorism the internet has become the

breeding ground for fake news on technology companies platforms. Fake news has become such an issue

that it has begun to affect people personally and will continue to do so if technology companies do not put

a stand against it. While some may argue that people are responsible for fact checking where they

get their information from, ultimately technology companies have the most responsibility for fact

checking and preventing the spread of fake news because the distribution of said fake news is on

their platforms in which their audience is impressionable, and they can hold distributors

accountable rather than allowing them to continually profit off fake news.

Media companies are responsible for fact checking for consumers and stopping the spread of

fake news as their audience is impressionable to believe and rely on information that is

distributed across their platforms. In the article “Google rolls out new ‘fact check’ tool

worldwide to combat fake news” by Weston Williams it states that according to Andrea Forte, an

assistant professor at Drexel University College of Computing & Informatics shares how
“Google was built to help people find useful information” and their initiative to provide a tool

which fact checks information for users but it “won’t eliminate the problem of fake news

completely” but it is “an important step in fighting the proliferation of misinformation on the

web,” (Williams 7 & 11). This makes for a better understanding of why technology companies

are most responsible for fact checking because a platform like Google that is huge in the

distribution of information and has large sums of disposable money would be able to invest into

fact checking, there would be a large decrease in the amount of false information that is spread.

There are flaws within fact checking for example Google having to fact check everything

because there is millions upon millions of information they have to fact check but it puts us

closer to decreasing the spread of fake news to impressionable consumers. In the article

“Students have ‘Dismaying’ inability to tell fake news from real, study finds” by Camila

Domonoske states how Sam Wineburg, a professor of education and history at Stanford

University assessed High School students on whether they could spot something fake from real

on Facebook and in this assessment they were asked which one of the “two posts announcing

Donald Trump’s candidacy for President” in which one post was “from the actual Fox News

account, with a blue check mark indicating it was verified, and one from an account that looks

like Fox News,” (Domonoske 21). If companies like Facebook, where this assessment took place

actually checked the posts that these students were seeing there would be the elimination of that

fake news. If Facebook takes that initiative of fact checking what is posted on their massive

platform that can reach millions of people there would be a partial solution and end to fake news.

All in all media companies have the most responsibility to fact check what is distributed from

their platforms because it would result in a massive progression to the fact checking cause.
 Media companies should be obligated to fact check what is distributed on their platforms

because they can eliminate the spread of fake news because distributors often profit from their

malpractice and do not receive consequences. If they are fact checked they will no longer make

a profit and therefore curve the amount of false information that is infiltrated to people. In the

documentary “Fake: Searching for truth in the age of misinformation” Co-Founder of Sleeping

Giants, Nandini Jammi shares that when brands purchase ads with Google to promote

themselves, they sometimes are placed in sites that are “unfavorable without the brand

knowing”. She states that “235 million dollars every year is going to fund disinformation” she

goes on to say that “brands never asked to be on disinformation sites” such as sites like Breitbart

that is notorious for posting fake news where brands “had no idea they were on this website,”

(Troncoso 34:00-37:00). In other words, media companies allow for sites to use their platform to

distribute information and for many of these sites to continue their practice they need funds so

they rely on commission they get for the amount of traction they get. As a result, these sites often

create outrageous headlines to garner traction so they get profits in return which causes incentive

to create fake news in order to get as much money as they can regardless if it causes harm. Media

companies should fact check that way brands that pay large sums of money with the innocent

intent of promoting themselves are not bannistered over fake news sites and for those sites to

rather receive rightful profits if they provide truthful credible information. In the article

“Websites that publish fake news make money and surfer no consequences” by The Los Angeles

Times states that “Every 1,000 visitors earns you at least a dollar or two with banner ads sold

through Google...people in the misleading news business have said they can make up to tens of

thousands of dollars per month,” (LA Times 3 & 13). This exemplifies how money driven the

fake news trend is and how Google and other big tech companies are to blame. Rather than put a
stop to fake news, as they have the funds to have a team of employees attack the problem by fact

checking or even create a computer technology to do so they don’t but thy rather use their money

to pay the same people that create the disservice to millions of people by distributing

misinformation. In closing, technology companies have the responsibility to fact check fake

news that is in their platforms because they incentivize it by profits so if they do not want their

reputation to be destroyed because they allow for danger to prevail over millions of people and to

resolve that is more important than money.

Some may say that people themselves should have the responsibility of preventing the

spread of fake news by fact checking because it is better for people to understand and tell what is

real from fake news and that it is difficult for technology companies to fact check because there's

billions of news articles/information across the internet. In the article, “Students have

‘dismaying’ inability to tell fake news from real, study finds,” by Camilia Domonoske states that

we need to “teach...to read like fact checkers” and she furthers her point that technology

companies don't hold responsibility of fact checking but that it is on the “shoulders of anyone

who uses a screen to become informed about the world,” (Domonoske 39 & 41). This is reasons

people to fact check as we are becoming a world where everything is digital and we need to be

taught or conditioned to understand that we should first fact check our information as it would

serve us best to know the ways to readily examine our sources. It could be believed that even if

companies did have fact checking tools there would still be flaws so people are responsible to be

prepared to fact check as there are potential laws within that system. However, technology

companies hold the utmost responsibility to stopping the spread of fake news by fact checking

because some distributors have ill intentions that are created with the intent to deceive a nd hurt
people and that is why companies should take the initiative of fact checking seriously on their

part because it is on their platform rather than having the consumer have to fact check. The NBC

video “Fake news: How this teenager in Macedonia is striking it rich” shares that a teenager

named Demetri made thousands of dollars during the election by spreading fake news and had

continually spread this information knowing how damaging it would be and affect people both

emotionally and ideologically. Impressionable people may see it and automatically believe what

they see because that is an emotional response and when they do so they are misinformed. The

video shares that Goog;e and Facebook have taken measures to stop accounts like his but have

not stopped him specially. This shows that tech companies do have major influence in providing

fact checking but they are not doing it to the extent that they could do which eliminates the

argument that people are responsible to fact check when companies have full ability to do so.

In Conclusion, Technology companies are those who have the responsibility to stop the

spread of fake news because they have the funds and ability to do so while consumers are limited

to what they can do. This leads to companies being the answer to the problem since they allow

this to flourish on their platforms. If companies in the near future continue their fact checking

initiative we will live in a place where misinformation is not infiltrated and spread to millions

upon millions of people.