John Oliver takes an eye-opening look at the way misinformation spreads online.
John Oliver takes an eye-opening look at the way misinformation spreads online
John Oliver has covered the topic of misinformation plenty of times before on Last Week Tonight, from vaccine myths to coronavirus conspiracies — and on Sunday, he returned to it once again.
This time the focus was the spread of misinformation among non-English speaking communities, something spotlighted recently by the revelation of how little time Facebook spends moderating content outside the U.S.
Oliver went on to break down examples of misinformation in diaspora communities, from Vietnamese Americans turning to YouTube due to a lack of credible news sources airing in Vietnamese, to the memes spreading on private messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat.
"A key problem right now is that many communities don't have the same fact-checking resources that English-speaking ones do," Oliver concluded.
"Beyond that, there needs to be public pressure on platforms to do something about all forms of misinformation, whether they are in English or not. Because a whole lot depends on this."
Oh, and in case anyone needs a shorthand way of telling a relative that they just shared some misinformation, Oliver's team also came up with a collection of "Good Morning"-style memes and videos with a twist, all of which are free to download now.
Suzanne Scott from Fox New wins vote and becomes Mis(s) Information :P
ReplyDeleteFunny how some of you fell for the Russia conspiracy hoax for 5 years, some of you clowns still to this day believe the lies they were fed...
ReplyDeleteThe media hate competition
ReplyDeleteOur main misinformation sources are main stream news media like the NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, and WaPo, to name a few. I hope he's looking at propaganda meant only to bolster the plutocracy.
ReplyDeleteHopefully now people will start listening and help combat misinformation and disinformation, especially in immigrant communities.
ReplyDeleteSOMEONE IS FINALLY CALLING OUT THE GOOD MORNING MESSAGES
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU JOHN
Harambe never would have fallen for misinformation. Rest in peace, king
ReplyDeleteThor Heyerdahl was a great norwegian explorer who travelled the pacific ocean by his Kon-tiki raft. He got along with everyone, including Fidel Castro. That he was a Joe Biden lookalike was new to me, but still interesting.
ReplyDeleteJohn! As a Native American…I cannot thank you enough for being a “fresh off the boat” immigrant dreamer lecturing generational immigrant dreamers what it is to live up to what they built!
ReplyDeleteDon’t worry when we take back the house in 2022 and win in 2024 we will deport the dreamers
DeleteOur elders used to tell us “don’t believe everything you read on the internet” now we say it to them
ReplyDeleteI hope to be helping some Afghan refugees learn ESL, and this clip might get put Into the lesson plan
ReplyDelete"It can reach 3.2 million people." and one of them will be Kevin Bacon.
ReplyDeleteThank you to John and his brilliant team at Last Week Tonight! As a Vietnamese American this episode meant a lot. And those messages at the end are genius.
ReplyDeleteAs a Vietnamese person, welcome to a glimmer of what it’s like in a Viet household.
ReplyDeleteI comment "cite your sources" on social media, YouTube, etc., more than anything else. I obviously don't have an audience, but Oliver does, so THANK YOU LWT!!!
ReplyDeleteI love that the audience was most offended by the Marvel Movies joke (and I say this as a fan of marvel lol)
ReplyDelete"Brown parents will believe anything!"
ReplyDeletesweats nervously in Balkans
It's so sad that people are controlled by the technology and "information" they get without having the intelligence to know what is true fact vs lies
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else wish sometimes they were interesting enough to have an interview with Oliver? :^)
ReplyDeleteOh shit I just noticed when he screamed "grow up" that we're out of the white void and have a studio audience again!
ReplyDeleteThis ranks among Oliver's most important work, thank you
ReplyDeleteSo, the whole "filling to full causes explosions" might just be a sort of mistranslation. It's fine to fill the tank to full, but some people try to "top it off" once the auto-shut-off engages. This can be dangerous, since it can spill out and cause a fire, not to mention you don't have room for thermal expansion of the fuel, which could result in the gas tank getting damaged or even leaking.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't have the context about the post, so it very well could just be a crazy person, but it also could just be a friendly PSA that needs better wording. Stuff like "don't top off" is written on every gas pump, but usually only in English/Spanish. "Topping off" in most situations is translated to "filling full," but when it comes to gas tanks, "topping off" is overfilling.
I'm Colombian, and I can confirm this 100% I've seen great amounts of misinformation from family and friends.
ReplyDeleteThe audience getting triggered by the MCU diss was hilarious.
ReplyDelete14:07 That jab at the MCU was the best part!
ReplyDelete“Welcome to the internet, have a look around. Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found”
ReplyDelete-Bo Burnham’s villian song about the internet
WAIT SHIT I DIDN'T REALIZE AT FIRST THAT THIS HAS AN AUDIENCE AGAIN T_T i haven't watched this season yet and woooow it's honestly nice to hear :D
ReplyDeleteAny man who must say, "I am the King", is no true king.
ReplyDelete"Tywin Lannister"
Such an underrated character.
Delete11:30 - This reminds me of a video I watched last week where a father and teenage daughter who were protesting masks at a school board meeting kept quoting what "a famous politician said" (their phrasing) in ways that supported their argument, without ever mentioning said politician was Hitler.
ReplyDeleteWe have the same morning messages in Italy, we call them "Buongiornissimi!" (lots of cats, dogs, flowers, and - of course - cups of coffee and cappuccino!). We also have problems with bullsh*t messages and images going around WhatApp. This is truly a global problem.
ReplyDeleteGood episode on a serious issue, but I've always felt very uncomfortable with calls for censorship. It's not just a matter of technical challenge for media companies to implement: it puts them in the role of deciding what's true and what's acceptable to say. I understand that most of this misinformation is generated by bad actors and I'd also like to see it stopped, but censorship is a dangerous tool that can turn on you so quickly. Let's not enshrine Facebook as the Ministry of Truth.
ReplyDeleteAnother great episode! Very funny yet very informative. Thank you for speaking truth to the issues we have in the world these days!
ReplyDeleteYou and your entire staff are national treasures. Thank you for all your hard work.
ReplyDelete