According to an Israeli start-up superstar, to rid the world of “fake news,” the internet must stop making this misleading content so profitable for those who peddle it.
By: Ezra Stone, United with Israel
Yaron Galai, the Israeli internet pioneer who founded a number of hugely successful online advertising and publishing companies including the content promotion company Outbrain, recently declared that the only chance of getting rid of fake news is to stop incentivizing its creation.
Galai should know, since Outbrain is one of the most successful and widely-used companies driving traffic and profits on the web. In a recent interview with Calcalist, Galai broken down how the models used by Google and Facebook, which are based solely on harvesting clicks, reward advertisers for flooding the internet with the type of sensationalized articles and photos that get people to click their mouses. Much of this content is what is now famously referred to as “fake news.”
Galai hopes to break the mold with his Outbrain operation, which counts Fox News, CNN, Sky News, The Guardian, and United with Israel among its clients. Outbrain hopes to make online outlets less reliant on social media like Facebook to drive traffic.
In a nutshell, Outbrain helps expose users to articles and videos created by a variety of content providers, leveraging exposure through mutual reliance.
Whether Galai’s model will ultimately be successful in eliminating the misleading and outright false clickbait plaguing the web remains to be seen. If his past successes are any indication, however, Outbrain just may help improve the quality and veracity of the news we consume on the web.