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Twitter and Google Take Steps

Twitter has also taken steps to identify and remove fake accounts
and automated accounts. In 2018 Twitter reported that it was
locking nearly 10 million suspicious accounts per week and re-
moving more for violating the site’s anti-spam rules. When an
account is locked, it is blocked from posting or interacting with
other Twitter users. The company also announced that it would
be removing the tens of millions of blocked accounts from users’
follower lists in an effort to restore trust in the social media plat-
form. Many believe it is a step in the right direction. “People will
believe more and read more on Twitter if they know there is less
bot activity and more human activity,” says Keith Weed, the chief
marketing offi cer of the consumer goods corporation Unilever. “I
would encourage and ask others to follow.” 58
Google, which owns YouTube, has also taken steps to com-
bat fake news. Computer-savvy users have been able to ma-
nipulate Google’s algorithm to get fake news sites placed higher

Identifying Manipulated
Photos and Videos

Some types of fake news involve manipulated photos or vid-
eos. For example, after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland,
Florida, a fake photo of survivor and gun control advocate Emma González
ripping up the US Constitution spread across social media and sparked out-
rage from thousands of people. Most people had no way of knowing that the
photo had been fabricated.
Now, researchers with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agen-
cy (DARPA) are developing an automated tool to ght this type of online
manipulation. Their work focuses on developing tools that can detect a ma-
nipulated photo, video, or audio le and provide detailed information about
how the le was altered. Once the tools are complete, DARPA plans to work
directly with tech companies to implement them on their platforms, allow-
ing the companies to identify potentially fake content in seconds.

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