Tag: fake news
85% of UK think creating fake news should be illegal
New research from digital identity security specialists, ID Crypt Global, reveals that an overwhelming majority of the UK public believes those who create and spread fake news should have their social media accounts banned, with 85% also believing it should be made illegal. The survey of 1,121 members of the UK public, commissioned by ID Crypt…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitter agrees to comply with EU laws on fake news
Twitter has agreed to comply with tough new EU laws on fake news, Russian propaganda and online crime after a team of officials from the European Commission entered its headquarters to stress test its capacity to operate legally in Europe. The move came just weeks after Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, quit the bloc’s voluntary code of practice…
Two thirds of Brits worried about spread of ‘fake news’
Two years into the pandemic and with misleading news, images and video flowing in fast from the Russia-Ukraine war, research shows that 65 percent of Brits are concerned about the spread of fake news. The UK is in the top three countries in Europe who reported being the ‘most concerned’ about the spread of fake…
Safer Internet Day: 1 in 2 children encounter misleading content daily
To mark this year’s Safer Internet Day, new research released today (9th February) shows young people are experiencing misleading content online on a daily basis. According to research from the coordinators the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), 77% of young people (aged 8 - 17) surveyed feel that being online has been a more important…
1 in 2 teens have fallen for ‘fake news’, claims Vodafone survey
Ahead of Safer Internet Day tomorrow (9th February), which explores the theme ‘An Internet We Trust’, Vodafone has released research uncovering UK teens’ perceptions around fake news and misinformation online. According to its research, almost half (46%) of teenagers have fallen for fake news and with 49% saying they were more aware of fake news in 2020…
Facebook urged to share data to tackle fake news
Facebook has been asked to share more data with third-party fact checkers in a bid to tackle ongoing spread of potentially harmful misinformation across social media. Full Fact, the fact-checking charity which started rating UK posts suspected of containing false information in January, says that the initiative should be fully extended to Instagram, amid concerns…
Mozilla launches European Elections toolkit to fight fake news
Mozilla, the firm behind the popular Firefox web browser, has released a guide to spotting potential online interference ahead of the European Parliament elections. The guide includes tools to identify bot accounts on social media, as well as information on the EU, fact-checking resources and tips on how to spot misinformation online. European elections are…
OpenAI shows how AI could be used to write fake news stories
Researchers have demonstrated how artificial intelligence could be used to write fake news stories with little input from humans. OpenAI, with backers including Elon Musk and Microsoft, have decided not to release the entire AI system code, known as GPT-2, over concerns about how it could be abused to produce convincing fake news on a…
Facebook’s Top 6 most controversial moments in its 15-year history
Facebook first launched on February 4, 2004 as a social network known as TheFacebook, initially aimed at students at Harvard College. Since then it has expanded rapidly, attracting a large number of high-profile controversies along the way. Despite this controversy, the social networking giant has gone from strength to strength financially, reporting strong results in its…
WhatsApp to restrict message sharing to fight ‘fake news’
WhatsApp is to limit the number of times users can forward any single message to five in an attempt to stop false information spreading on the platform. The Facebook-owned messaging platform first introduced the policy in India last year after a string of mob attacks in the country were blamed on fake reports which were…
