To Google, Apple and Facebook - STOP running fake red top tabloid news - PLEASE

To Google, Apple and Facebook - STOP running fake red top tabloid news - PLEASE

Started
4 November 2017
Petition to
Google and
Signatures: 215Next Goal: 500
Support now

Why this petition matters

Started by Robert Walker

The flood of fake news that fills Google News these days is incredible. Try a Google news search for NASA asteroid warning. The top 100 results are usually fake news. NASA has never done any asteroid warnings (they missed the Chelyabinsk meteorite).

This is the petition. Do sign and share if you agree:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Petition to Google - you have a huge responsibility for the education of our children. Please:

  • Give us an option to filter out fake and sensationalist news from Google News - such as the stories by the Daily Express, AND
  • Label these sources as sensationalist.

Or in some way or other, do something about this flood of fake news that is misleading so many people. Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many of your search results are filled with stories sourced to the Daily Express, a "red top tabloid" that invents them, or bases them on "sources" as slender as Facebook posts by undisclosed sources or YouTube videos. These are often  scary stories with clickbait titles warning of planets due to fly past Earth or collide with it and similar bizarre and impossible allegedly astronomical scenarios.

This gets really serious at times. When the sensationalist press ran news stories saying the world would end on 23rd September 2017, then as someone who writes about such issues, I got floods of messages from scared children who thought the world was about to end.

I'm also admin of Doomsday Debunked and we got floods of posts there too. They reported that they couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, were  vomiting at times, had panic attacks, and a couple were in hospital for the effects of their fear on their bodies. Often  they are under medication for anxiety and receiving therapy. Many of them also said they were suicidal.

It's entirely because of Google News and related sites like Apple News and Facebook trending - nearly all of them say they found the stories that way. For more about this see my: Floods Of Fake Astronomy Fill Google News - Children As Young As 14 & Younger Get Scared, Sick & Suicidal

They often say they had ordinary happy lives before they read these stories. Some of them are very young. David Morrison who fronted "Ask an Astrobiologist" for many years says he was contacted by scared and suicidal children who self identified as age 11 upwards during the scare in 2012.

Most of the sensationalist Doomsday news is published in the UK but through google news it reaches a global audience

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The idea is to send it to Google if we get lots of signatures. I'm not sure who to send it to - do say if you have suggestions. Meanwhile, signing it and sharing helps to raise awareness of the issue.

Meanwhile, I used Google's own custom search engine option to create this new search page:

Google News Without The Nonsense.

Try using it to search for "Planet X" and see the difference! This also shows how easy it would be for Google to fix this.

For those of you who get scared by these stories, you may find our group on Facebook helpful, it's here: Doomsday Debunked and see also the list of articles in the Debunking Doomsday blog to date.

See also my other petitions:

Also please share this page with anyone else who may be interested. Thanks!

Support now
Signatures: 215Next Goal: 500
Support now
Share this petition in person or use the QR code for your own material.Download QR Code

Decision-Makers