Digital Smarts - Fixing Misinformation

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  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$bin is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->__construct() (line 30 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$wildcard_flushes is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 637 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
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The Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of online information researchers, recently published a comprehensive analysis of the false narrative of the presidential contest and recommended ways to avoid a repeat. The report concludes that while social media companies are not solely to blame for misinformation, the platforms did serve as hubs in which false narratives were incubated, reinforced and cemented. Two of the report’s suggestions for how companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can change to help create a healthier climate of information include holding people with outsized influence (think Trump and Kim Kardashian) to a higher bar, and asking social media companies to be transparent and consistent about their guidelines on misinformation and disinformation.