Tech Companies Fuel 'Economic Engine' That Enables Fake News, Says AEI's Jamison
It's unlikely Facebook, Google and other tech companies can stop or even slow the spread of fake news because their business models "enable the economic engine that powers fake news, and the demand for a social media site's version of…
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the truth is probably quite low," wrote American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Jamison in a Thursday blog post. Many bloggers and writers of false stories, he said, are paid -- some up to $10,000 a month -- based on the number of views of the articles they write and costs are low to spread such stories, while the payoff in media attention is high. "The internet makes the fake news economic engine possible," said Jamison, who was on the FCC transition team. He cited a 2016 Pew Research Center study that said most consumers don't trust the news they find on social media. Fighting fake news means creating an economic engine that gives consumers more value and is more powerful than the one that drives fake news, Jamison said.