April 02, 2019
The New York Times had an article about how Facebook is struggling to deal with an anticipated flood of fake news posts that will coincide with elections in India this month. The situation is presented as some sort of unforeseeable event that threatens to overwhelm Facebook in its efforts to weed out such posts.
Contrary to what is implied by the article, if Facebook is not prepared to deal with a large volume of fake posts it is because of the decision that the company has made not to hire adequate staff in order to increase its profits. It is comparable to the decision of a hospital that finds itself unable to deal with its patient load because it has not hired adequate nursing staff.
Preventing the widespread dissemination of fake news items is a doable task, however, it may end up being expensive. If that proves to be the case, then it is Facebook’s responsibility to spend the necessary money, even if it is a big hit to their profits.
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