Question

1)Propose 5 possible ways in which Facebook can combat social media disinformation and shore up their reputation.

2)How might privacy and user considerations differ for an application such as Facebook, which is used primarily by individual users, compared with an application such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that is used primarily by corporations?

3)If you were an individual using Facebook, describe 2 steps you would take and how these steps can protect you from falling prey to social media disinformation or being influenced by propaganda in Facebook.

Answer 1

1. Nowadays a lot of antisocial elements are using the social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin and other platforms to spread the wrong information or provocative news to disturb the harmony or peace of any particular region or community. This is turning out to be a real menace in the society and Facebook owns a social responsibility to curb this menace. Some of the remedial measures which can be taken by Facebook to combat this challenge could be as below-

• Devising a robust artificial intelligence tool which can detect the authenticity of the information.
• Putting filters to stop users to upload derogatory news or information
• Identifying the willful defaulters or offenders who have known history of spreading the false news.
• Blocking the users permanently who could be a potential wrongdoers based on their track record.
• Reporting to police about the potential miscreants.

2. Privacy and user considerations are not so strict as compared to corporate based systems like ERP. One of the major difference between the two are the authenticity and approval levels. Facebook doesn’t have a very strict approval mechanism for its access and identification of all the users with full-fledged information about individual users, while ERP based system make these things absolutely necessary for its corporate employees.

3. As a Facebook user, I would make sure that all the information which is being circulated as post or attachment is not being taken as authenticated information in a first go. For some of the sensitive information, I would rather believe on government news agency and exercising the patience until then.