16/11/16 - Google will soon ban fake news sites from using its ad network

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/14/13630722/google-fake-news-advertising-ban-2016-us-election

The article talks about how Google and Facebook has been criticised at their lack of ability to handle the news that many would consider to be misinformation or false. These fake news websites are essentially were most prominent during the US Election as a way to confuse the voters and in a way sway the way voters would vote. Many would argue that due to the increase in new and digital media, Facebook and Google are now considered prime sources of information and by allowing fake news websites to show up on their search engines, they are promoting a bad message for their companies.

• Google under fire for not taking necessary steps to prevent fake news  across the web during the 2016 US election
• Google already prevents its AdSense program from being used by sites that promote violent videos and imagery, pornography, and hate speech.
• Facebook had developed a tool to identify fake news on its platform, but chose not to deploy it 

Personally, this is a very interesting debate, because we must try to realise that at what stage do we consider news to be fake or misinformation. At any stage of mediation, a piece of news is remade to deliver a specific agenda or preferred dominant reading. Many big newspapers do this as a way to create a bigger audience for their companies, so who would be the one to decide which news is real or not? Prime example being FOX News. However, it should also be noted many websites such as TheOnion use news as a way to present satire by creating "fake news" in a way, would these then be banned by the companies? I honestly believe that websites which purposely have an aim to create misinformation should be removed, such as the Denver Guardian, which used the advantage of an official newspaper called Denver Post's name to spread misinformation during the elections.