WASHINGTON (Bywire News) - The purpose of this coronavirus fake news battle is to prevent fearmongering, panic, victimisation and the misunderstandings of symptoms and treatments that could lead to more harm than good.
Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube say they will fight fraud and misinformation but are their technologies enough, or could decentralized and blockchain-based platforms offer inherently more accurate and trustworthy news whilst protecting freedom of speech?
In mid-March the technology giants Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube as well as Microsoft, LinkedIn and Reddit issued a joint statement.
“We are working closely together on COVID-19 response efforts. We’re helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in coordination with government health care agencies around the world.”
Google began promoting Covid-19 information, Facebook banned the ads of sellers looking to monopolise on Covid-19 related panic buying, Twitter worked with the NHS in the UK to combat fake accounts, and YouTube added a misinformation team.
On the whole, either corporate led teams or computerized algorithms developed by similar teams have the difficult task of deciding what news or content is fake, misleading, inflammatory, or otherwise damaging. These models are centralized, controlled by the few and in this case multi-million-dollar companies, they also have little or no consumer input.
Blockchain technology, in contrast, has a decentralized ethos at its core. It also offers an immutable method of security where every transaction is recorded to a blockchain’s tamper proof ledger and can include both a timestamp and an attributable identity.
Brendan Blumer, the CEO of Block.one developers of the EOS public blockchain and the anticipated Voice social platform, has said:
“In five years from now, if you don’t timestamp your articles on the blockchain, you’re going to be considered a fraud.”
Michael O'Sullivan, creator of decentralized news network Bywire News says:
“Social and tabloid incumbents have destroyed consumer trust. A new solution must return trust and accountability, it must admonish and remove fake, misleading and unverified news and it must be attributable.”
Though, perhaps the technology giants and social networks are waking up to their responsibilities regarding fake and misleading news, their centralized design and longstanding models of diminishing privacy, selling users data and untrustworthy brands will be difficult to change, once trust is gone, it can be very difficult to return.
Bots are a major issue, a recent Vice article declared that as many as 50% of the Twitter accounts talking about coronavirus could be bots delivering misinformation to the public, as per research by Carnegie Mellon University. The university’s team identified “more than 100 false narratives,” relating to coronavirus, as per Vice these fell into the categories of “cures or preventative measures, weaponization of the virus, emergency responses, the nature of the virus (like children being immune to it), self-diagnosis methods, and feel-good stories, like dolphins returning to Venice’s canals.”
Blockchain-based Voice says it will use a “special authentication system to ensure everyone on Voice is an actual person.” Using Voice Tokens, a utility token model, content creators can use and earn tokens in order to “acquire the attention” of other users. Voice tokens are recorded on a blockchain’s ledger, providing transparency as to who is creating and promoting content.
“By enabling users to see who and how much is behind promoted content, it makes promotion more engaging and less manipulative. This auditable transparency also extends into the distribution and consumption of Voice Tokens that are earned by authors and users and spent by those seeking promotion.”
In this way, real and actually popular content receives both promotion and reward and illicit actors are discouraged or simply fail to gain attention from the masses who can see them for what they are. Rather than centrally controlled algorithms deciding what content the public should see, the Voice network is built with freedom of speech in mind but with a model that may deter illegitimate, harmful, and misleading content. Voice admits it is not yet perfect saying “moderation is still a concern,” but adds:
“The large-scale attacks and manipulation that takes place on current social media platforms, is due in large part to the inability to be attributed content to end-users, therefore fostering a rampant environment for fake, commercialized, and manipulative content and behaviour. Voice users are verified real identities and designed to dramatically decrease the prevalence of fake accounts and illegitimate content through the ability to attribute everything to a specific person.”
With Bywire News, readers are rewarded with Wirebit (WIRE) tokens which they will also be able to use to reward content publishers with for good content. Fake news will be “quickly identified by a unique and multi-thread process including algorithms, token incentives, community validation and reader gamification.” And with Bywire News, content will be recorded and traceable using EOS blockchain technology.
With any regional or global event, especially one such as Covid-19, it is vital for social and content platforms to stop fake news and bots. But this type of control has to be balanced with freedom of speech for citizens, though also with moderation to ensure that free speech is positive and not abusive, derogatory, inflammatory, racist, or inciting of panic.
Emerging blockchain platforms have the potential to break the centralized models popular today and offer mediums where a mixture of technology and decentralized community input and approval help to ensure content is both real and also indicative of the welcoming and all-encompassing, truthful society we desire.
(Written by Melanie Kramer