2P News’ Co-founders excited at the prospect of helping Facebook sort out real news articles from the fake ones.
TORONTO, Ontario – Facebook Canada has contracted independent fact checkers to vet the news content and blog postings on its platform as concerns continue to grow over the dissemination of false and misleading information on Canada’s largest social media outlet.
While still suffering from a controversy over the misuse of its users’ data, Facebook has called upon Proved Plus Probable News (2P News) to pro-actively evaluate news stories in Canada for accuracy and to respond to complaints from users about misleading information and fake news.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a July 22nd, 2018 TED talk
“2P News is recognized as one of the most trustworthy online news establishments around, and its reputation started great and has only improved year-over-year since its inception in 2013. Moreover, privacy and security are issues to which they seem to be immune. Moving forward, I want to model Facebook after 2P News in an effort to win back trust, win back users (#undeleteFacebook), and win back investors (#buyFacebookStock).”
To be unveiled on Wednesday, August 1st, 2018, the 3rd-party fact checking will run until Facebook is satisfied that fake news on its platform has been reduced to below an acceptable level, especially around news for upcoming provincial elections in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Alberta.
The announcement comes amid an ongoing debate in Canadian politics about the quality of information disseminated on social media platforms. 2P News co-founder, Antoine McGuilicuddy, addressed the issue at a press conference at Facebook’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto.
Antoine M., 2P News co-founder.
“The amount of deceptive, fake, and misleading information on facebook is increasingly concerning and continues to keep me up at night. In particular I am talking about fake news around elected officials or those running for office. We were chosen for this task thanks to our years of editorial and journalistic integrity and we will not disappoint. Expect fake news to grind to a halt before long.”
According to a transcript from the press release, Mr. McGuilicuddy and his business partner Dr. Darcy Flowman have already identified a number of fake articles making their viral rounds on Facebook including the following:
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs are coming, and they could hurt like hell
Canada to host FIFA World Cup along with Mexico and the US in 2026
US President Donald Trump is trigger-happy with his international tariff pistol
People upset with Donald Trump over migrant family separations
Putin gifted Trump a soccer ball that may have transmitter chip inside
“There is no place for misleading information like this on Facebook Canada, or anywhere for that matter. The low lives who benefit from purveying fake news on the Internet and social media outlets, in Canada and in general, should be ashamed of themselves and in my personal opinion should be charged criminally – every last one of them,” remarked 2P News’ Dr. Darcy Flowman during the question and answer period following the press conference.
According to reports leaked from closed-room discussions between the Facebook and 2P News founders, Mr. Zuckerberg is looking to immediately implement the following changes to Facebook based on recommendations from Mr. McGuilicuddy and Dr. Flowman:
Reduce Facebook’s membership from over 2,000,000,000 to roughly 75 registered users and throttle back the Facebook server farms to limit traffic to approximately 23 to 34 visits per month – this will reduce the risk of the personal data of tens of millions of users being compromised and exposed and also help create a more cozy family feel.
Introduce a personal data scrambling technology called YouNotYouTM that uses artificial intelligence to reassign each user’s personal data with random public information found on the Internet based on site activity. This way, even if data is accidentally leaked or maliciously stolen or hacked, the data cannot be tied back to you.
Refocus the InstaGram service (to be renamed InstaGeek) to the narrow scope of geoscientists who are working in exploration geology in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The 11 members of this group will only be allowed to post images that are vetted by robots to be those of outcrops.
Many analysts are skeptical of this joint venture citing that 2P News may have, itself, been involved with spreading misinformation on the Internet. 2P News failed to comment on this matter when asked.
