Introducing & Evaluating ‘Nutrition Facts’ for Online Content

So-called ‘fake news’ – deceptive online content that attempts to manipulate readers – is a growing problem. It has been blamed for election interference, public confusion and other issues, both in the United States and beyond. A tool of state intelligence agencies, scammers and marketers alike, deceptive online content is poised to have growing consequences. This problem is made particularly pronounced as younger generations choose social media sources over journalistic ones for their information. This paper considers a prospective solution in the form of providing consumers with ‘nutrition facts’ style information for online content. To this end, it reviews prior work in product labeling and disclaimers, considers several possible approaches to the challenge and the tradeoffs between them.

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