BuzzFeed Editor Lectures College Students On Fake News

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By Rob Shimshock

A BuzzFeed editor visited Pennsylvania State University Thursday to give a presentation on fake news and Facebook’s role in spreading it.

Craig Silverman, whom Fortune has called a “fake news expert,” spoke at Penn State regarding fake news and Facebook’s role in propagating it during the election, as reported by Daily Collegian.

“It’s crazy, but misinformation about American politics has actually become a good business opportunity,” said Silverman.

In “Fake News, Real Consequences,” Silverman called the 2016 presidential election the “perfect storm” for fake news. The BuzzFeed editor condemned fake news for causing both journalists and the audience to question the reliability of media outlets instead of paying attention to significant articles.

“They need to be held responsible,” said Silverman, referring to Facebook and proposing that the site changes its algorithm so that fake news doesn’t get boosted via social media so easily.

Weiming Xie, a finance student, commented on President Trump’s labeling of certain outlets as fake news.

“It’s ridiculous,” he noted, describing the nicknames Trump has given to these outlets.

“It devalues the term ‘fake news’ when we just throw the phrase around,” stated Yash Parikh a political sciences and economics student.

But just a few weeks ago in early March, BuzzFeed was called out by WikiLeaks for propagating fake news:

Apple Says It Has Patched The Vulnerabilities Mentioned In The Wikileaks Dump Of CIA Cyber Tools https://t.co/YbaqMMxbXU

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) March 8, 2017

“Our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS,” said Apple, according to BuzzFeed’s own article.