Curbing fake news has no easy answers, says Dorsey
Our job is not to find out misinformation because misinformation could also be a joke; it’s the context and intent behind the information. If the message is intending to mislead we need to figure it out
JACK DORSEY, CEO, Twitter
NEWDELHI: The spread of fake news is a growing problem with no easy answers, Twitter chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey said during a town hall in Delhi on Monday, outlining challenges on social media that are particularly crucial to tackle ahead of key elections next year.
Fake news and misinformation have emerged as critical public awareness challenges, with some of the most extreme consequences being murders that were a result of mob frenzy fuelled by rumours on social media and messaging platforms.
According to Dorsey, who is also the co-founder of the microblogging service, it is important to understand the scope of the problem. “No one can build a perfect lock, but we need to stay ahead of our attackers. AI (Artificial Intelligence) could probably help,” he told the audience at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. “Our job is to make sure it doesn’t spread. That it doesn’t gain in impressions beyond its earned reach and certainly not go to someone who hasn’t explicitly asked for it. Our job is not to find out misinformation because misinformation could also be a joke; it’s the context and intent behind the information. If the message is intending to mislead we need to understand it and figure it out,” he said.
To illustrate a difference between benign and harmful misinformation, he recounted an instance connected to the 2016 US elections. “Someone tweeted an image that instructed people to send an SMS to a particular number to be registered to vote. It was misleading people to make an action, to make them think that they registered to vote so they could participate in the 2016 presidential election in the US. If they did that, they actually would not have been registered. That is dangerous,” he said.
Dorsey had earlier met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who said they discussed measures to address fake news. “Jack Dorsey, the Co Founder & CEO of Twitter dropped in to chat this morning. Twitter has grown into the most dominant ‘conversations’ platform globally. Jack explained some of the steps being taken to keep those conversations healthy & to tackle the menace of fake news,” Gandhi said in a tweet. Twitter did not detail these measures.