Policy Proposal:
The problem I am seeking to address is the spread of misinformation and “fake news” in general with the rise of social media platforms. I would like to delve into the algorithms of platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, and how they play a massive role in the spread of “fake news”. Since their main goal is engagement, many people are susceptible to constantly receiving false information on their feed based on their beliefs, ideologies, and interests. These social media platforms have become a hub for conspiracy theorists and for groups spreading false information without any sort of justifiable evidence. Many social media companies have attempted to stop the spread of false information from being spread, however, with their main goal being gaining profit through user engagement, it is clear that there could be so much more to be done in order to combat “fake news”.
The solution would have to be properly fact-checking and monitoring posts as well as group chats to check if any false information is being put out. However, this will prove to be very difficult as there are so many different avenues for misinformation to be spread amongst people. It is also important to find out what groups of people are susceptible to believing “fake news” as well as the intentions of who is putting this information out there in the first place. I also plan on searching for reforms that will pressure social media platforms to properly combat this issue as they need to be held accountable.
* Questions to address:
How can social media platforms combat false information from being spread when their main goal is profit through user engagement?
How can social media platforms alter their algorithms to keep people safe from false information?
Who is susceptible to receiving false information? What are the intentions of those spreading false information?
Are you seeking government policy, or are you asking social media companies to change themselves? (Government policy could *require* social media companies to change the way they are doing business.)
Do you want public pressure to lead the companies to change themselves? Again, this is not a *policy* solution, even if it is a good one.
So: What should the government do to produce the changes you seek?
* Values to address when creating a policy proposal:
1. Public good: People are becoming very exposed to false information on social media to the point where it is almost unavoidable. Social media platforms, whether it is intentional or not, are exposing people to false information daily. The more people that come across misinformation, the more it spreads and puts millions of people at risk, especially groups that are more susceptible to believing it to be true.
2. Health: I believe that health is one of the most important values at risk due to the threat of misinformation. Whether it is to further a certain political agenda or to promote unrelated types of medicine, misinformation when it comes to health and diseases has become one of the most dangerous and popular types of “fake news”. Myths about the pandemic, vaccines, and medicine have caused a huge amount of deaths and suffering to those who have been exposed to false information regarding health. Properly combatting the spread of misinformation will significantly improve the health and well-being of the public.
*** The following assignment consists of both a presentation and an essay regarding the same subject:
The Written PMP Project: Over the final five weeks of the course you will write a paper in which you identify and describe a policy problem, offer a policy solution, assess the moral aspects of the problem and the solution, and examine the political prospects of your solution. This paper will be 4000 words or so.
It should be formatted as:
Project Title
Your Name
Text (with author date citations, as in (Rom 2020: 15) if the citation was from something I published in 2020, on page 15.
References (in alphabetical order by author, Chicago style)
Your attachment can be a .pdf or .docx Please save your file as “Morality Yourlastname Project”
You can format the text as you wish, but I prefer single spaced with an extra space between paragraphs.
The Oral PMP Project: You will also make a video (~10 minutes) based on your written project. You should consider this video to be worth ~15 percent of your grade.
Please upload your final PMP video here. In this five-to-ten minute video, you will outline a policy problem and your policy solution. I hope you will discuss the moral dimensions of the problem and solution, and then also consider the political prospects of your recommendation. The video can be straight narration — talking to the camera — or involve pictures, maps, video clips, graphics, and so forth, as you see fit. [Note: I’ve been using these techniques in my videos from the course. In some videos, I just talk to the camera. In other videos, you don’t even see my face.]
*** Please take around 7 single-space pages for the essay and 2 single-spaced pages for the presentation. Please format the presentation as an essay so that I can narrate it.
Sources to use:
Source: Dwoskin, Elizabeth. 9/4/2021. “Misinformation on Facebook got six times more clicks than factual news during the 2020 election, study says”. Business Insider. accessed 7/10/2022
https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-algorithms-unwinnable-misinformation-battle-2021-9 (Links to an external site.)
Evidence: This article shows how potent Facebook is when it comes to the spread of misinformation, providing evidence on how false information shared within the website amongst users got more clicks than factual news during the pandemic in 2020.
Source: Agustin, Francis. 10/2/2021. “Activists and healthcare professionals are trying to stomp out anti-vaxx info online — but social media algorithms are working against them”. Business Insider. Accessed 7/10/2022
https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-algorithms-unwinnable-misinformation-battle-2021-9 (Links to an external site.)
Evidence: This article shows how social media algorithms are not adequately moderating platforms for misinformation. It also provides evidence on how misinformation communities take advantage of these algorithms to spread false information.
Source: Bauder, David & Liedtke, Michael. 10/5/2021. “Facebook put profit before public good ‘over and over again’: Whistleblower”. Business Standard. Accessed 7/10/2022
https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/facebook-put-profit-before-public-good-over-and-over-again-whistleblower-121100400103_1.html (Links to an external site.)
Evidence: Provides evidence on how Facebook has used a “profit over public good” policy multiple times when it comes to misinformation. Due to the fact that misinformation causes user engagement, and user engagement leads to profit, this shows how social media platforms such as Facebook have valued profit over the wellbeing of its community.
Source: Lewandowsky, Stephan & Kozyreva, Anastasia. 3/24/2022. “Algorithms, Lies, and Social Media”. OpenMind Magazine. Accessed 7/10/2022
https://www.openmindmag.org/articles/algorithms-lies-and-social-media (Links to an external site.)
Evidence: This article discusses the severity of social media and algorithms when it comes to combatting the spread of misinformation, as well as providing evidence on how social media platforms generate revenue from sharing ads from unreputable sources. It shows us how the interests of the companies are not aligned with the interests of the users and how that will create issues in this fight.
Source: Menczer, Filippo & Hills, Thomas. 12/1/2020. “Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It”. Scientific American. Accessed 7/10/2022
Evidence: Explores the ideas of information overload and bots when it comes to the spread of false information. Provides evidence on how this exploits the user’s cognitive vulnerabilities when it comes to spreading misinformation.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overload-helps-fake-news-spread-and-social-media-knows-it/ (Links to an external site.)