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Fake news hacks call for creation of reality checker, say analysts
The fake news annoyance is spinning into a full-throttle political nuisance. Hackers — state-sponsored and otherwise — are working to weaponize open-source tools and social media to spread misinformation and sway government elections.
Facebook’s Russian hacking scandal was a preview of things to come, according to Dave Vellante (@dvellante, pictured, right), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. “The midterm elections, 2020, is really going to be won or lost on social media,” he said.
Vellante examined the threat along with co-host John Furrier (@furrier, pictured, left) at the BigData SV event in San Jose, California. They discussed how new technology can enable corruptors and possibly stamp them out.
Keeping the meme wars clean
The public must get sharp about validating news outlets and messages on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. There may be hidden political actors pulling the marionettes strings on journalists and others. “A lot of people don’t believe that you can actually manipulate social media that way,” Vellante said.
“Here’s the anatomy of the hack: If you control the narrative, you can control the meme; if you can control the meme, you can control the idea; if you can control the idea, you can control the belief system; if you can control the belief system, you can control the population,” Furrier said. This is the ground on which a new social-networking cold war is being fought.
Sounds nasty, but there is a silver lining. Out of widespread distrust, a platform that can prove its integrity and neutrality could come to the fore. Also, new infrastructure and new software could give rise to a Google for social networks, according to Furrier. Whoever can shine a light on what is real and what is not, will ultimately have all the internet at their doorstep, he added.
“If you’re in the media business, and you’re not thinking about this, you will be out of business,” Furrier concluded.
Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the BigData SV event.
Photo: SiliconANGLE
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
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