Skip to content
The Fake News Network episode artwork

Nov 20, 2016 44 min

The Fake News Network

from Bostonred Hosted by bostonred

Mark Zuckerberg says the notion that fake news influenced the U.S. presidential election is "a pretty crazy idea."Facebook is not a free speech platform. It has a long list of rules, called Community Standards, of things you're not allowed to say or share. Naked pictures of children are a well-known example.During this election cycle, Zuckerberg personally intervened to change the rules. When Trump called for a ban on all Muslims, it was clearly hate speech, as defined by Facebook guidelines. But the CEO ordered his staff to not take it down because it was newsworthy.Facebook algorithms accidentally promoted to "trending news" a fake story about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly pledging her support for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.One of the things that has shifted, he says, is that now news is a more important part of Facebook content. "We're still working through what that means." MPRNews Melissa Zimdar an asssistant professor of communication and media at Massachusetts’ Merrimack College, published her own tally of questionable news sites. Her list of about 130 problematic “news” sites includes those she considers to be “false, misleading, clickbait-y, Ken Doctor Episode 2329

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

The Fake News Network

0:00 44:24

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Bostonred?

This episode is 44 minutes long.

When was this Bostonred episode published?

This episode was published on November 20, 2016.

Can I download this Bostonred episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.