• News
  • Articles
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Campaigns
    • Stand4Uyghurs
    • In Their Shoes
  • Prayer
  • Members
  • Donate
  • More
    • About Us
    • Advertise Your Business
    • Contact
    • Jobs
    • Submit an Article
    • Subscribe
    • Write
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube WhatsApp Telegram
Islam21c
  • News
  • Articles
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Campaigns
    • Stand4Uyghurs
    • In Their Shoes
  • Prayer
  • Members
  • Donate
  • More
    • About Us
    • Advertise Your Business
    • Contact
    • Jobs
    • Submit an Article
    • Subscribe
    • Write
0 Shopping Cart
Islam21c
Home»Special»Web Posts»Apple Boss: Fake news is ‘killing people’s minds’

Apple Boss: Fake news is ‘killing people’s minds’

Web Posts 11/02/2017No Comments4 Mins ReadBy Editor

Fake news is “killing people’s minds”, Tim Cook, the head of Apple, has said. The technology boss said firms such as his own needed to create tools that would help stem the spread of falsehoods, without impinging on freedom of speech.

Cook also called for governments to lead information campaigns to crack down on fake news in an interview with a British national newspaper. The scourge of falsehoods in mainstream political discourse came to the fore during recent campaigns, during which supporters of each side were accused of promoting misinformation for political gain.

“We are going through this period of time right here where unfortunately some of the people that are winning are the people that spend their time trying to get the most clicks, not tell the most truth,” Cook told the Daily Telegraph. “It’s killing people’s minds, in a way.”

He said: “All of us technology companies need to create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news. We must try to squeeze this without stepping on freedom of speech and of the press, but we must also help the reader. Too many of us are just in the ‘complain’ category right now and haven’t figured out what to do.”


  • Helps complete development and release our brand new website where all the above happens
  • Helps run National Khutbah days with 100s of Imams reaching 100,000s on Jummah highlighting social issues
  • Helps produce Unscripted podcast shows with global influential figures tackling todays challenges
  • Helps produce Unscripted podcast shows with global influential scholars and activists tackling today's challenges
  • Helps research featured articles by leading scholars/activists offering guidance and solutions
  • Helps write NewsViews articles setting our narrative to major breaking stories
  • By proceeding, you will be added to the Islam21c mailing list. Your data is safe with us and will be protected in accordance with our data protection policy.
  • £ 0.00
  • per month
  • NOTE: Donating Zakat? Please proceed to our Zakat applicable emergency appeal here.
  • Donation Top Up

    Are you trying to increase your Rizq? Did you know by increasing your donation right now, Allah promises to give you back MUCH MORE
  • Helps write NewsViews articles setting our narrative to major breaking stories
  • Helps research featured articles by leading scholars/activists offering guidance and solutions
  • Helps produce Unscripted podcast shows with global influential scholars and activists tackling today's challenges
  • Helps produce Unscripted podcast shows with global influential figures tackling todays challenges
  • Helps run National Khutbah days with 100s of Imams reaching 100,000s on Jummah highlighting social issues
  • Helps complete development and release our brand new website where all the above happens


He said that a crackdown would mean that “truthful, reliable, non-sensational, deep news outlets will win”, adding: “The [rise of fake news] is a short-term thing. I don’t believe that people want that.”

While instances were seen among supporters of both sides of the recent US election battle, Donald Trump’s campaign was seen by many as a particular beneficiary of fake news reports.

And the US president’s team has been caught sending aides out to insist that a huge crowd had attended his inauguration, when the evidence showed a relatively modest audience was there.

Images from the moment Trump was taking the oath showed the crowd was relatively small and went nowhere near as far back down Washington’s National Mall as the monument. Other evidence suggested a relatively small crowd in attendance.

Senior aide Kellyanne Conway later characterised the Trump administration’s falsehoods as “alternative facts”.

Fake anti-Trump stories during the election included one in which it was falsely claimed that he had groped the drag queen and television presenter RuPaul. Hillary Clinton was scrutin ised over her claim that there was “no evidence” her emails had been hacked because the FBI director, James Comey, had concluded it was likely they had been.

A study by economists at Stanford University and New York University published two months after November’s US presidential election found that in the run-up to the vote, fake anti-Clinton stories had been shared 30 million times on Facebook, while those favouring her were shared eight million times.

It said: “The average American saw and remembered 0.92 pro-Trump fake news stories and 0.23 pro-Clinton fake news stories, with just over half of those who recalled seeing fake news stories believing them.”

But it called into question the power of fake news reports spread on social media to alter the outcome of the election, saying that, “for fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign ads”.

Nevertheless, Cook demanded action to decrease the reach of fake news. “We need the modern version of a public service announcement campaign. It can be done quickly, if there is a will.”

He added: “It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public. There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic… It’s almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid.

“In some ways kids will be the easiest to educate. At least before a certain age, they are very much in listen and understand [mode], and they then push their parents to act. We saw this with environmental issues: kids learning at school and coming home and saying why do you have this plastic bottle? Why are you throwing it away?”

[donationbanner]


Published by The Guardian

Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Telegram WhatsApp
Previous Article52% of women sexually harassed in UK
Next Article Britain’s “extremist” bloggers helping the ‘alt-right’ go global

Related Posts

New resources released for schools to tackle Islamophobia

02/03/2017

Trump learns from Arab regimes how to ban Muslim organisations

01/03/2017

243 academics complain of “outrageous interferences with free expression” at universities

28/02/2017

Why the world needs to remember Sir Gerald Kaufman

27/02/2017

New study shows fasting could reverse diabetes

24/02/2017

New anti-Semitism definition + Prevent training = Palestine talk banned at university

23/02/2017
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Editor
Islam21c
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Telegram
© 2023 Islam21c.com | All rights reserved

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

close-link
.