Forget Fake News – The Real Filter Bubble Is You

Banning false news on popular social media sites amounts to censorship. Will Self, writing for New Statesman, questions any manipulation of news on such sites – curating news for positive or negative stories, writing algorithms that match stories to readers or selecting specific articles for trending news. “Back in the days when everyone read the print edition of the New York Times this sort of manipulation was, it is argued, quite impossible; after all, the US media historically made a fetish of fact-checking, an editorial process that is pretty much unknown in our own press,” Self writes from the United Kingdom. He then goes on to describe the tendency toward “confirmation bias,” people creating their own filter bubbles by selecting reading materials, trusting and sharing opinions that reinforce values and beliefs. People fundamentally disagree about any set of facts – religious, historical, financial, scientific – that guide society. Bans and curations can’t overcome the uncomfortable observation that the world’s education systems are producing people who prefer entertainment over critical thinking and society’s values are self-centered, biased and mean. Self concludes by noting that the internet remains a lead resource for truth-telling and fact-checking. – YaleGlobal