Surprisingly, someone used Shanghai Wake Cloud to fabricate! Why is "traffic rumors" constantly banned?

In the past two days, the trend of online posts surrounding the appearance of unidentified flying objects in the Shanghai sky is thought-provoking——

On September 1st, some citizens captured "unidentified flying objects" in the sky of Shanghai, sparking heated discussions among netizens;

On September 4th, the China Meteorological Administration, the Shanghai Meteorological Administration, and the Shanghai Anti Rumor Platform all pointed out through official platforms that after preliminary assessment, the "unidentified flying object" is likely to be a wake cloud formed after the aircraft has flown over;

Many netizens left comments under the guidance of these authoritative institutions, stating that they witnessed the entire process of wake clouds appearing after the plane while filming the sunset that day, and it was not an "unidentified flying object".

Netizens share the actual situation they saw that day

Enthusiastic netizens also explore the reasons why seemingly objects in the wake cloud fall

In theory, after the release of the above information, the statement about "unidentified flying objects" has basically come to an end. Strangely, after the "theory of unidentified flying objects" was clarified by multiple parties, as of September 5th when it was published, some netizens still fabricated information under the title of "unidentified flying objects", while relevant platforms still pushed fake messages according to "algorithms".

For example, some netizens and self media have integrated photos of Shanghai's wake cloud taken by others, and then combined them with other pictures of unidentified flying objects, space photos, or screenshots of movies and TV dramas, under the title of "Shanghai's current unidentified flying objects"; What's even more outrageous is that the time for shooting the wake cloud was clearly in the evening, but some rumormongers mistakenly claimed that it was taken by Shanghai residents at sunrise in the morning.

Who should be responsible for these blatant falsification behaviors?

Of course, those who spread rumors cannot escape their responsibility, and related platforms cannot be ignored.

The reporter noticed these online posts, and an important reason is the active push from multiple platforms - because the reporter searched for relevant content multiple times during the process of verifying "what is an unidentified flying object", which may have been captured by the platform's "algorithm", indicating that the reporter is interested in such information, and thus made the push.

Based on this result, three points can be inferred:

Firstly, the algorithm of the platform has the ability to identify the topic of relevant online posts or videos. Therefore, under the premise that multiple parties have clarified, why can't the algorithm of the platform recognize rumors and prevent the spread of false information?

Secondly, the algorithm binds the platform with the rumormonger - the platform chooses to push because the algorithm knows that the target audience is interested and is likely to browse relevant information, thereby winning activity and browsing time for the platform; The rumormonger knows that fraud is achieved by utilizing the platform's push rules, traffic sharing mechanisms, etc., in order to obtain reading rates and earn real money.

Thirdly, algorithms can know the personalized preferences of netizens and achieve precise push notifications.

It can be seen that cracking down on spreading rumors not only requires the parties involved to be punished in accordance with the law, but also takes action against algorithms and traffic.

Maybe traffic is the foundation of the Internet platform and the profit foundation of many We Media or institutions, but the fraud for eyeball and traffic has reached the point of "everyone yells". Every time the Shanghai debunking platform clarifies such rumors, it receives many comments from readers, hoping to severely punish those who create and spread rumors.

However, "traffic oriented" and "algorithm first" are still the business models of many platforms. In the face of rumors, apart from blocking the accounts of rumormongers, platforms have not taken action against this criticized business model. So, the act of spreading rumors and spreading rumors was not fundamentally eradicated.

Managing rumors does not require platforms to abandon traffic and algorithms. However, from the perspective of "technology for good", the platform can fully adjust algorithms and make good use of traffic——

First, when a piece of information on the Internet is determined to be a rumor, can the algorithm identify the rumor that is already spreading at the first time, tag them, and remind the public not to believe them;

Furthermore, with the help of algorithms, can the platform remove those error messages?

Also, can algorithms and traffic assist in clarifying information released by authoritative institutions, so that more people can see it? Especially targeting audiences who may have browsed incorrect information?

The unavoidable fact is that a considerable number of netizens do not have high educational qualifications. Some of them are easily misled by the complex network information, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood; There are also those who lack awareness of the harm of spreading rumors, or are used by others to become rumormongers, or take illegal paths to satisfy their own selfish desires of becoming famous and increasing attention. For these groups of people, there is a great need for algorithms and traffic to expose them to more positive and accurate information, enhance their ability to identify and resist online rumors.

In addition, other netizens can also start from me when criticizing rumor makers and spreaders, supporting debunking - seeing rumors, actively reporting and complaining; When you see the information about debunking and clarifying rumors, please forward it as much as possible. Everyone's power is limited, but when it comes together, it not only provides an opportunity for more people to see the truth, but also helps drive algorithmic changes, allowing invisible algorithms to discover that more people are looking for the right voice.