Report: How Blockchain Can Stop Online Trolls and Fake News

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that the current social media apps and sites are using are not enough to shut down the said fake accounts.

October 30, 2018. The Philippines ranks 6th in the world with the highest number of Facebook users. According to Statista, a Germany-based online statistics portal, the country has 73 million active users as of October 2018. This is the reason why the country is also susceptible to cyber trolls and fake news.

A software engineer and an IBM champion for blockchain and cloud category in 2018, Mr. Ivan Vankov stated that blockchain technology can help clamp down the spread of trolls and fake news.

According to Mr. Vankov, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that the current social media apps and sites are using are not enough to shut down the said fake accounts. Through blockchain technology, it can stop the said “actors” faster and more efficiently.

He gave a hypothetical example where media organizations can upload a specific news information into the blockchain. This, in turn, will have a unique identification tag that the computers can read and verify that this news is legitimate.

After verifying that the incoming news is true, an organization associated with the media outlet can now spread it amongst its own audience. This process will make sure that only credible information will be published by media outlets and their partner organizations.

Facebook can also use blockchain technology to incentivize its readers to gauge the quality of content and check any possible biases. In addition, the technology will also collect the necessary data from the readers.

Mr. Vankov then stressed the real medium are humans that get influenced because of emotions such as hate, anger, desire, and regret.

“There is no way to prevent irrational people [from] taking irrational actions, but there is a way to help rational people to stay rational—by allowing them to check the information.” – Mr. Ivan Vankov, Software Engineer and IBM champion for blockchain and cloud category

With Facebook’s widespread use all over the world, it has also become one of the targets in crypto malware. As previously reported here on BitPinas, Facebook Messenger became a target of FacexWorm. The malware targets cryptocurrency exchanges and spreads through FB messenger. It has the ability to steal a user’s account credentials, hijacks crypto transactions, and more.

Read more: Crypto Malware is Spreading and it is using FB Messenger Again

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