Combating Fake News And Misinformation On Social Media With Tech

“When fake news is repeated, it becomes difficult for the public to discern what’s real.”

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all other social media platforms are facing the challenge of fake news and misinformation. Users are losing interest in the channels due to the mix of journalism and PR. Several websites use misguided techniques just to get clicks and views from users. The real journalism and accuracy of news are slowly vanishing.

So, how can social media combat fake news and misinformation? Well, just as technology has eased the sharing of fake news, it is also capable of combating the same. This is what the blog would cover.

No matter if you are an entrepreneur planning to build an authentic social media platform or an established social media app looking for ways to combat fake news, digital technology can solve it.

What Is Fake News And Its Types?

Fake news has become a major part of social media, raising doubts about the credibility of sources. Any information that does not have any proven credibility and has the ultimate goal of just receiving clicks or attention from users is known as fake news and misinformation.

Nearly 60% of the news on social media is fake without any credible background. Even leading media houses are not trustworthy in this digital era. However, there are a few sources that still focus on providing verified information, they are significantly low in number.

Fake news and misinformation have several types. These types are important to understand in detail before trying to solve them with digital technology. Here are the most well-known classifications of fake news and misinformation floating over social media.

Clickbait

Have you seen clickbait that has a very attractive title that makes readers click on the news but does not have any verified origin? The owners spreading news just for clickbait often aim to generate clicks and income. Teenagers are mostly affected by clickbait since they tend to click on it more often.

Propaganda

Fake propaganda is another form of fake news and misinformation spreading on social media. If you have explored World War 2, there were massive amounts of propaganda spread by leading media houses to change public perceptions about the events. These news sources are biased about a party and want to support it by creating fake stories that people trust. Propaganda is also known as a crowdsourced-based technique where the aim is to make the crowd believe in topics.

Parody News

Have you heard about fabricating or modifying a story accordingly to gain more views? Sometimes these stories are presented in the form of humor, where journalist acts more as a comedian than a journalist. Shows like horror diaries are fabricated stories that are stitched in such a manner that they gain engagement from the public.

The State Of Fake News And Misinformation

In the past few decades, the state of fake news and disinformation on social media has deliberately changed. From Google, Twitter, Facebook, and major newspapers, misinformation is everywhere. It further becomes a problem for social media owners to keep the platform authentic and credible for users.

According to the Pew Research Centre, 82% of US adults say they often get news from their smartphones or computers using online sites or social media applications. Below is a detailed graph showcasing the news consumption across platforms.

After 2020, as per Statista’s research, the level of trust in media worldwide started to drop by 2022. In the future, if we do not mitigate the same, people might completely lose trust in media and news sources.

How Are Fake News And Information Raised In The Social Media World?

Although fake news has been present for a long time in history, it increased significantly after the inclusion of digital media. Heading back to the 20th century, the rise of mass media and digitalization started with the radio and television. This in turn allowed news agencies to reach the broader masses, where they could also use videography to strongly influence the audience. False information was fabricated by the news agencies and shared with the masses in no time.

Further, social media opened another door full of potential to share fake information on the internet where media publications were not answerable to anyone. Just a note saying that the information was not verified by us was enough from the news agencies, which was always at the end of the blog and mostly not noticeable.

Finally, the journalists and press release product news articles that fuse PR stunts with news.

Impact of Fake news and disinformation on society

• Influencing the thoughts of the audience
• Chaos in society due to misinformation
• Decreasing trust in media outlets
• Lack of authenticity and credibility of social media platforms

Challenges Faced By The Social Media Industry To Combat Fake News And Misinformation

Although new and unique social media app ideas are hiring expert social media app development companies to combat fake news, there are certain challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

Algorithm Challenges

Social media applications are continually exploring ways to tackle fake news and misinformation by building intelligent algorithms. Highly engaged content is amplified on social media platforms without any proper fake news detection. Misinformation websites receive 4x times more views as compared to authentic and credible sources.

Accuracy Challenges

There are no accuracy meters to find out how accurate the news is on social media platforms. Most media outlets focus on providing news faster instead of focusing on its accuracy.

Declining Trust of the Audience

When there is misinformation on social platforms, overall trust decreases. Further, the number of clickbaits often leads to declining trust among audiences on social media platforms.

Infusing PR and Journalism

In a world where PR has gained high importance, every major news outlet is targeting press release stunts. The difference between real journalism and press releases is diminishing since there is a strategic infusion of PR and journalism.

Read Also: Social Media App Development Guide- How to Build a Leading Social Networking App?

How Can Digital Technology Combat Fake News And Disinformation On Social Media?

Now comes the essential part of the blog. Let us find out how technology can help combat fake news and misinformation on social media using multiple fake news detection models.

Machine Learning Approach

Although social media platforms are investing in machine-learning-powered AI technology, there is still a need to further advance it. Machine learning algorithms can identify the data sets and match them in the database to verify if they are already available on the internet.

Further, it can detect clickbait who are just posting information to gather views and clicks from the audience. In case you want to know which technology to integrate, you can consult a dedicated iOS app development company or Android if you have an Android app.

Natural Language Processing Technique

The natural language processing technique is highly capable of classifying the information. Social media platforms can embed NLP chatbots like ChatGPT to let users chat and register the channels spreading misinformation.

Employing Expert Fact-Checkers

With the increasing spread of fake news and misinformation, there are various professionals who are experts at fact-checking the information. It is essential for social media platforms to employ fact-checkers who can verify the news shared on the platform and label the sources as verified.

Crowdsourced Approach

How about a feature where users can vote for the authenticity of news shared on social media platforms? This can help other users verify its credibility. On social media platforms, business owners can hire dedicated app developers and integrate the crowdsourced feature.

How Can RipenApps Contribute to Combating Fake News and Misinformation on Social Media Platforms?

We are the leading digital transformation company and have helped hundreds of businesses leverage digital technology. Whether you want to integrate a machine learning approach or a natural language processing technique, our dedicated developers can make your social media platform authentic and credible.

Our decade of expertise in diverse industries has given us recognition from leading media agencies worldwide. With us, you can transform your social media platform into a clean and bias-free platform where the trust level is monitored by advanced algorithms.