AKEED-Amman

Media outlets and news agencies are seeking to take advantage of advanced technology to eradicate media illiteracy and help readers tell true from fabricated stories through several Google Chrome applications.

In light of the steady stream of false information on social media sites and the fact that many people depend on these sites, instead of media outlets, for information, The Washington Post has released a RealDonaldContext plug-in on Google Chrome "to help the public receive the most accurate information on the tweets of U.S. President Donald Trump and to provide a summary of their truth." This followed a series of false stories that have spread in the media, especially during the U.S. elections.

 Meanwhile, Slate has created a free extension on Google Chrome called This Is Fake, which identifies articles on Facebook that spread false information and allows users to inform their friends when they share a fake story. According to Slate, once you install the extension, as you scroll through your Facebook feed, stories that Slate has identified as fake news will be flagged with a red banner over the preview image, informing you that they have been debunked.

 Google has promised to replace the "In the news" section that sits atop all desktop Google search results with a rotation of "Top Stories" through an automated system and human review, according to Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville.

According to a report published by the International Journalists" Network, false news has become a problem. The media and technology industries are urgently seeking to find ways to solve it. Among these mistakes is a tweet by Eric Tucker, co-founder of a marketing company in Austin, Texas, about buses crowded with people paid to protest against President-elect Donald Trump. Tucker"s message was retweeted 16,000 times and was shared more than 350,000 times on Facebook. No such buses ever existed. According to The New York Times, a company called Tableau Software hired the buses for a conference.

Also, a fake news site called The Denver Guardian on Facebook spread negative and false messages about Hillary Clinton, including a claim that an FBI agent connected to Clinton"s email disclosures had murdered his wife and shot himself.

According to Pew Research Center, a survey has shown that 18% of people largely trust media establishments, while around 75% say they are biased. Also, around 1.2 billion people log on to Facebook every day. Half the Americans rely on social media as a primary news source. Thus, Facebook has faced criticism because it allows publishing stories full of mistakes that aim at misleading the public.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, deflected responsibility for fake news away from his company, arguing that "identifying the truth is complicated." Columbia Journalism Review found that it may be complex for algorithms but easy for journalists whose daily duty is as simple as investigating what happened, when it happened, who did what, how and why.

Facebook announced it had begun a series of experiments to limit misinformation on its site. The tests include putting warning labels on fake news posts, making it easier for its 1.8 billion members to report fabricated stories, and creating partnerships with outside fact-checking organizations — including FactCheck.org, Google, The New York Times, PolitiFact, the Associated Press and CNN — to help it indicate when articles are false.