Google with its fact check feature will ensure it stays ahead of Facebook and Twitter

File photo of the Wikipedia homepage. Reuters

By Nash David /  17 Oct 2016 , 13:08

The world over, politics has a negative undertone. And given the universality of the Internet, it doesn’t take too long before you find yourself impacted and eventually part of an agitated debate. With the rise of social media including Facebook and Twitter, tech and politics are intertwined.

The rise of social media

Some of my close friends stay away from social media. If you meet them, you could have hours of political discourse. But they’d rather stay away from mediums such as Twitter or Facebook. They have a firm grasp of political realities, but they stay from interacting on social media because they prefer debating with like-minded individuals with a deep sense of understanding in politics, rather than swaying from blind-sighted idolising to caustic crosstalk.

India witnessed a very confrontational form of discussion on most social networks. The run up to the 2014 general elections caused a surge in this behaviour. Irrespective of which side of the political spectrum you’re on, you’d find an incessant chatter that gets even the undemanding highly stimulated.

Impact on ‘law and order’

There have been instances across India, where social media and the Internet at large have been accused of being a threat to ‘law and order’. From Kashmir to the Patidar reservationagitation, social media access has been clamped down for a brief period. Such is the influence social media wields.

Since emotions run high on social media discourses, banning access to the Internet is the first remedy to prevent escalation of passions. The hope is lesser conversations would result in lesser dissipation of information. And eventually curb mobs.

Image Credits: Reuters

The age of digital herds

For that matter, India and the US are no different. In India, the debate is between supporters of political parties. In the US, it’s between supporters of two presidential candidates. In both cases, the attacks get increasingly personal. In both cases, there are cases of photoshopped images going viral. There are creation of memes and the comic play of satire. Sometimes to touch sarcasm. Sometimes to lighten up the otherwise hostile online environment. As the US heads to its national elections in a month, there’s a similar outburst of emotions on social media in the United States.

Image: Reuters

Supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump dig out records from the past to express their leaning and portray why their favourite candidate is

Google now has a fact-check label for Google News

By tech2 News Staff /  15 Oct 2016 , 13:24

Google has introduced a label to help readers identify fact-check articles in Google News. Google News labels stories according to the kind of content and origin. Major stories of local origin are labelled “Local Source,” opinion pieces have the “opinion” label, and Wikipedia stories are tagged as “Wikipedia”.

In the information age inaccurate stories can spread quickly. Sites that depend on clickbait for traffic can potentially fabricate news articles as well, or spread rumours. Fact checking sites monitor major stories and verify the authenticity of the content and sources. Articles that are fact checked by reputed fact checking networks will be tagged with the label in Google News. The measure is to help readers easily identify the major stories that have been verified by fact checking organisations.

Fact checking networks monitor over 100 news publication sites for the accuracy of the information posted. Fact checking is a collaborative effort, and one of the largest initiatives is the International Fact Checking Network. The labels can be seen in the expanded story window on Google News. The update has rolled out first on the UK and US versions of the site. The labels will be seen on both the web version of the site and on the apps for iOS and Android.