US: Why fake news is an antitrust problem: Forbes

On Tuesday January 10th, Forbes published an article explaining why fake news is an antitrust problem.

Sally Hubbard wrote “Facebook continues to face criticism for its failure to stop the proliferation of fake news. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded that Facebook must ensure that any fixes to address the problem do not introduce bias into the system.

But is Facebook already biased?

When viewed through an antitrust lens, news publishers are Facebook’s competitors. They compete for users’ time spent online, user data and advertising dollars. This competitive dynamic may in part explain why Will Lewis, Dow Jones CEO and WSJ publisher, has accused Facebook (and Google) of “killing news.”

Indeed, competitive biases baked into Facebook’s design deserve a healthy portion of the responsibility for the rise of fake news. By pulling technological levers that keep users on its platform, thereby lessening clicks to news publishers’ sites, Facebook has sped the decline of legitimate news and provided a breeding ground for the fake variety.”

Full Content: Forbes

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