“Iffy” Sites

with Paul Resnick, Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan

Today’s guest is an expert in identifying real vs fake content that’s circulating across Facebook and Twitter – on a daily basis. Paul is the director of the Center for Social Media Responsibility, University of Michigan, and Paul and his team have developed a way to measure the progress of media platforms at meeting their public responsibilities.

They use the term “Iffy” to describe sites that frequently publish misinformation. It is a light-hearted way to acknowledge that their categorization of the sites is based on imprecise criteria and fallible human judgments. They are publishing a web-based dashboard that charts the Iffy Quotient since early 2016. The dashboard enables comparisons over time and between platforms.

Join my conversation with Paul as we discuss his definition of “Iffy” sites, the operational problems involved with solving fake news, and his idea on verifying content before it goes live.

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