October 2, 2017
Anne Felicitas
@markzuckerberg 's plan to prevent future #russian interference won't work. #russianads #fakenews Click To Tweet
On the afternoon of September 21, days after news erupted that Russian ads connected to the Internet Research Agency interfered with the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went live from his personal Facebook account. Donning a brown t-shirt and a somber expression, Zuckerberg outlined his plans to prevent future Russian interference. He proposed more advertising transparency, strengthened review processes, and increased investment in security. As noble as Zuckerberg’s efforts, his seemingly unassailable plan has one problem: it won’t work.
An attempt to manipulate American minds has happened before Facebook announced the existence of 3,000 fake Russian ads. In late November, a Buzzfeed reporter discovered nearly 140 fake news sites, months leading up to the 2016 election. The fake news sites, which originated from Macedonia, disseminated fake clickbait news to accrue ad dollars. The fake news were so effective that they garnered hundreds of thousands of shares, reactions, and comments. The reason they succeeded on Facebook? Irresponsible readers.
According to the Buzzfeed report, the fake news sites succeeded because Facebook users believed false news stories without fact-checking them. They also shared articles that they didn’t read, assuming the headlines to be honest and accurate.
However, negligence isn’t the only reason fake news proliferates. A study from the Stanford History of Education Group, which included 7,804 middle school, high school, and college students from 12 states, found that most of the 7,804 participants couldn’t differentiate between fake news and real news.
Enraged citizens quickly blame Zuckerberg for Russian interference. “You are a traitor, sir,” said one angry viewer commenting on his live apology video. “Why are you selling ad space to Jew haters?” said another, referencing the anti-Semitic ad targeting options that mistakenly appeared on advertisers’ targeting fields. However, Zuckerberg isn’t the only one to blame for the rampant spread of fake news and divisive Russian ads—we, the American people, are to blame, too. We let emotionally charged stories fuel our urges to share without fact checking. We argue on comments sections, catapulting fake news to the top of news feeds. We hungrily devour news, factual or not, that suited our biases and regurgitated them to the world. We scroll past fake news on social media, neglecting to flag the post as spam or fake.
Zuckerberg may have created steps to prevent future Russian interference, but those steps won’t work unless we change.
