Who Takes Responsibility for Fake News?
I was reading this article in Forbes about Facebook's new policy on reporting fake news. (Article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2017/03/05/facebook-fake-news-tool/#4af31c887ec1) As much as I'd like for there to be some sort of system in place to combat fake news, I'm afraid it would bolster the claim against net neutrality. So can policies like the one Facebook is implementing work? I feel like every time a legitimate source is cited, a tRumper is going to press the "fake news" button. I guess the benefit is that this means jobs for paid trolls and Facebook news checkers. On the other hand, Google was supposed to go after fake news reports, burying them. However, when I google "tRump Obama" or something similar, I see reports from Breitbart about how Obama ordered the wiretap at the top of the list. Obviously, their algorithm is not working or they allow some things to get through on purpose.
If we go after the news sites that generate the most fake news, we end up in very complicated lawsuits that could take years to decide (and is going to bring freedom of speech). In the meantime, those news sites keep spewing their fake news.
If we go after the search engines and social media sites, we end up in complicated lawsuits that call net neutrality into question.
So where does the buck stop? Who takes responsibility in the end?