F ake News Game and Testing Net Neutrality
Here’s the news we’re talking about around the Zbra Studios water cooler. We’ve provided key bullet points from each article for the speed readers out there.
Can Making This Fake News Game Train People To Spot It In Real Life?
By Adele Peters from Fast Company
- “Researchers at the University of Cambridge created the game, along with designers from the Dutch media collective Drog, after their previous research showed that exposing people to a small amount of misinformation could help inoculate them against more fake news.”
- “The students were given a fact sheet on asylum seekers, and then played the roles of alarmists, conspiracy theorists, or clickbait mongers, using the game’s techniques to distort the facts. By the end of the process, they were more likely to question fake news about refugees than their classmates who hadn’t gone through the process.”
- “They’re also working on variations of the game, including one for children with different subject matter (fake news about Spongebob Squarepants).”
As Protection Ends, Here’s One Way to Test for Net Neutrality
By Klint Finley
- “As the FCC withdraws from protecting net neutrality, states are taking up the fight. Five governors have issued executive orders banning state agencies from doing business with broadband providers that don’t promise to protect net neutrality, and at least 26 state legislatures are considering net neutrality rules as well.”
- “Choffnes says the team hasn’t found any cable or DSL providers like Comcast or Charter throttling video. But it has noticed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all take take steps to slow video content on their mobile networks. All three disclose the practice and both AT&T and T-Mobile allow you to opt out of the speed constraints.”
- “…state regulators will also need to rely on reports from the public, whistleblowers, and disclosures from carriers, as well as crowdsourced tools like Wehe. If a broadband provider did decide to discriminate against particular sites or content, a state attorney general could then build a case based on consumer complaints, network data, and insider testimony,”
Nick Cotton is a project manager based out of Los Angeles, California. He’s got a background in the entertainment industry, and uses his talent at online messaging to extol the virtues of content marketing, interactive fiction and sentences measuring 280 characters or less.
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