BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — National News Literacy Week aims to inspire news consumers, educators, and students to practice news literacy and to strengthen trust in news media.
23ABC spoke to Bakersfield residents about fighting falsehoods on social media and how much they know about these platforms’ misinformation policies.
Starting with question number one: “Which social media platform exempts politicians, posts, and ads from its independent fact-checking program?”
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Some residents thought it would be Reddit, others thought Twitter, and then lastly Facebook.
Third time’s a charm for this question, according to Facebook’s policies, speech from politicians and opinions are not eligible to be fact-checked.
Facebook claims it would leave people less informed about what their local elected officials are saying and leave politicians less accountable for their words.
“Our approach is grounded in Facebook's fundamental belief in free expression, respect for the democratic process, and the belief that, especially in mature democracies with a free press, political speech is the most scrutinized speech there is. Just as critically, by limiting political speech we would leave people less informed about what their elected officials are saying and leave politicians less accountable for their words.”
The next question: “Which social media platform has banned all political ads?”
Most residents guessed Twitter.
According to Twitter, the promotion of political content by any type of candidate, political parties, or elected or appointment officials is prohibited.
The News Literacy Project's website says the platform banned all political ads in 2019, Tiktok also follows the same rules on its platform.
For question number three: Which four social media platforms directs users researching information about COVID-19 to credible public health resources?
Residents responded with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
According to News Literacy Project, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest all have features that directs users searching for information about COVID-19 to credible public health resources.
There is still so much to learn about news literacy, if you’re interested in taking a quiz to learn more about these platforms misinformation policies, you can visit News Literacy Project.
