FAKE NEWS BRAIN DRAIN
Apple chief urges blitz on bogus media sites
Apple boss Tim Cook has warned fake news is “killing people’s minds”.
The chief executive of the global tech giant wants governments to crack down on the phenomenon.
He urged world leaders to campaign against false stories that appear online.
Cook also said businesses, including Apple, must find ways to purge misinformation and drive out bogus news and clickbait without impinging on freedom of speech and a free press. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in November was seen by many as a particular beneficiary of fake news reports.
Fake news, which presents false hoods as facts, appears on websites masquerading as legitimate media outlets.
Notorious headlines include: “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” and “Isis leader calls for American Muslim voters to support Hillary Clinton”.
Cook, who collected an honorary degree at Glasgow University last week, added: “Unfortunately, some of the people who are winning are the people who spend their time trying to get the most clicks, not tell the most truth,
“It’s killing people’s minds, in a way.
“All of us technology companies need to create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news. We must try to squeeze this without stepping on freedom of speech but we must also help the reader.
“Too many of us are just in the complain category right now and haven’t figured out what to do.
“The rise of fake news is a shortterm thing. I don’t believe that people want that.”
Cook said that a crackdown would boost legitimate journalism, adding: “The outcome of that is that truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news outlets will win.”
A study by economists at Stanford and New York universities after the US presidential election found that fake negative stories about Democrat candidate Hi l lary Clinton had been shared 30million times on Facebook.
It said: “The average American saw and remembered 0.92 per cent of pro-Trump fake news stories and 0.23 per cent pro- Clinton fake news stories, with just over half of those who recalled seeing fake news stories believing them.”
Trump stories insisted that a huge crowd had attended his inauguration, when the evidence showed a relatively modest audience.