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https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-back-2019

Youcan earn points by reading posted resources and articles relevant to your topic. expand if you find a scholarly source that you think is particularly useful.

Part1:

Initial posts: 

1. Cite article in APA with a direct link to source. 

2. Summarize the article or source in your own words. In some cases a link provided will take you to a directory or very short article with additional hyperlinks. In either case, you should choose a subpage or hyperlinked article to answer the following questions. 

3. What is/are the main argument(s) and evidence provided to support that point, OR what is the main point of the article and examples provided to illustrate it. 

4. Explain if and how the information provided is relevant to your topic in General. 

5. Explain if and how the information can be used in your policy analysis. 

6. Conclude with any counterarguments, unanswered questions and/or personal reflections. 

To earn 10 points all questions must be answered and:

· Initial posts should be no less that 5 paragraphs and no more than 7 paragraphs.

· Fully addresses and develops all aspects of the prompt.

· Factually correct, reflective and substantive

· Contributes to discussion with clear, concise comments

· Grammatically correct and free of typos

Part2:

Follow-up posts:

To earn all 5 points for Follow-ups or Reponses should include the bullet points above AND:

· Offer additional context such supplementary but related facts, information or sources OR a counter argument.

· Between three & five paragraphs in length

· Demonstrating analysis of others’ post

· And extending meaningful discussion by building on previous posts

2

PolicyIssue about Twitter

Misinformation and fake news have become a constant norm in recent years. One form of media that has been largely affected by fake news and misinformation in social media, with Twitter being one of the companies that have been affected by this problem. The problem has become significant since Twitter users have often been made to believe numerous tweets that are false, which are posted on a daily basis. The company has, however, done little to address this challenge. The following analysis and infographic explain a government policy that can be initiated to circumvent this problem.

Twitter announced on Monday local time that in response to the new crown virus, if there is controversial or misleading information, Twitter will add tags and warnings to the information.

According to The Verge, the tags include links, which point to more details. Twitter wants to tell everyone that the information is harmful but not serious enough, so it is not deleted. However, the information is indeed confusing or misleading. Readers should be careful. For messages pushed before the announcement, the new labeling policy also applies, regardless of the identity of the sender. Tags point to pages carefully edited by Twitter, or to external trusted sources that contain more information.

Twitter has “zero tolerance” for false news. Previously, in February, for the 2020 US presidential election, Twitter labeled Twitter messages that contained artificial or deceptive media content, thereby reducing the proliferation of fake news. It is reported that in this operation, Twitter deleted any media content that may cause harm and deliberate misleading, including content that may bring personal safety threats, social chaos, suppress voters, and privacy risks.

In addition to attacking false news and putting warning labels on false news, according to cnBeta.COM, Twitter is testing the “repost with comments” function and the “tag tweet” page. According to well-known reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, Twitter’s move is to give users a deeper understanding of how their tweets are shared.

One policy that can be used to circumvent misinformation on social media includes the enactment of a national government policy. The government policy should ensure Twitter conforms to policies that have been put by the government to protect the user’s information. Such a policy will go a long in fostering a regulatory framework that is geared towards mandating Twitter to guard against fake news and misinformation while at the same time ensuring that it is responsible for any fake news that may emanate out of their site (Blankenship & Graham, 2020). The primary aim of the government is to safeguard and protect consumers, and the development of a policy is one profound way of fostering discipline and responsibility within the media world.

In a recently conducted research, Americans had a view that all actors have a share in taking responsibility to avert the spread of fake news. The research assessed and evaluated the role of every individual in ensuring that people are not exposed to fake news. For instance, the largest percentage of Americans felt that the greatest responsibility was with the search engines, who are directly responsible for preventing fake news. This is because they have a direct responsibility in sorting information and should, therefore, prevent the public from accessing fake news. The government’s policy should therefore be geared towards mandating search engines such as Google and Bing to sort out all fake news to prevent the public from accessing fake news that may find its way into social media sites such as Twitter, which is the focus on this study.

Americans also cited providers of web services as other critical stakeholders who are directly responsible for averting the spread of fake news. Twitter should also work closely with web service providers to ensure that they help them in eliminating the fake news. The web service providers should work closely with the government in the elimination of fake news. In this regard, the policy that has been initiated by the government should also be addressed to providers of web services since it is the only way through which Twitter will avoid fake news from finding its way into their platform.

There is an array of stakeholders that will be affected by the policy, such as Twitter, which is the primary stakeholder since it is mandated by the government and the public to moderate its content on their site to conform with the regulations that will be initiated within the policy. Twitter users are the other primary stakeholders since they are the ones who are being affected by the misinformation and will therefore be affected by the policy directly since the aim of the policy is to protect them from the misinformation (Coldewey, 2019). The other stakeholder is the government since it is the government that is initiating the policy. It is, therefore, the one responsible for making guidelines and stipulating the laws that should be followed to ensure that Twitter has moderated its content. Other stakeholders who are impacted by the policy include the people who are spreading fake news since they are directly responsible for misinforming the public (Roth & Pickles, 2020). The people who are doing this want other people to believe their views and will, therefore, be impacted by the policy. The policy will aim to prohibit such people from accessing the Twitter platform while at the same time making it easier for Twitter to initiate policies that are geared towards preventing any misinformation that can be brought about by such people. Other stakeholders who are impacted by the policy include news stations, which are impacted by the fact that they are the ones directly responsible for spreading the news to the public (Sandra & Rebecca, 2017). The news stations are also impacted by the fact that they are directly responsible for the messages that are directly issued to people. The reputation of Twitter could also be impacted if people learn that they are not providing truthful information.

In conclusion, while the government policy can go a long way in circumventing fake news from finding its way into Twitter, it is the responsibility of every consumer to avert the spread of fake news. Therefore, everyone should take responsibility for averting the spread of fake news. In this regard, people should also help people to avert the spread of fake news by informing both the government and Twitter about any fake news.

References

Blankenship, M., & Graham, C. (2020). How misinformation spreads on Twitter. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/06/how-misinformation-spreads-on-twitter/

Coldewey, D. (2019). Twitter makes its political ad ban official. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/15/twitter-makes-its-political-ad-ban-official/

Roth, Y., & Pickles, N. (2020). Updating our approach to misleading information. Retrieved from https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2020/updating-our-approach-to-misleading-information.html

Sandra, B., & Rebecca, C. (2017). Fighting fake news workshop report. Retrieved from https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/isp/documents/fighting_fake_news_-_workshop_report