Timothy Birdnow

Facebook., Google, Twitter, and other liberal information gatekeepers are upset that the alternative media undermined their preferred political outcome and so are going to ban a number of top websites.

From KMOV

"Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communications at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA, published the list Monday that's currently being shared across social media by students, non-students and journalists alike.

Zimdars says she was inspired to create the list for two reasons. The first was out of concern for the sources her students cited. The second was the constant sharing of these types of stories being shared on Facebook."

[...]

"The websites "rely on 'outrage' by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits."

Zimdars speaks on the theory called "confirmation bias," where a reader will seek information that coincides the most with one's beliefs and viewpoints.

"These kind of websites prey on this tendency and foster outrage, which drives us further apart rather than together - and makes the websites a great deal of money in the process," Zimdars said.

Zimdars said she was very careful about including "problematic sources from both sides of the aisle" because it is a problem for all political associations and ideologies.

The list comes as both Facebook and Google have announced that they are curbing the searchability of phony news across their platforms. Google said they would stop fake and misleading websites from utilizing the company's ad-selling software, stopping their revenue.

Twitter alsoannounced Tuesday that it would update its "mute" function for users to hide content they do not want to see."

End excerpt.

Here is the list thus far compiled by the good professor. It includes:

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 03:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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