NewsBreak: Most downloaded US news app has Chinese roots and 'writes fiction' using AI

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

June 5, 2024 4:40 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago


LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Last Christmas Eve, NewsBreak, a free app with roots in China that is the most downloaded news app in the United States, published an alarming piece about a small town shooting. It was headlined "Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns."

The problem was, no such shooting took place. The Bridgeton, New Jersey police department posted a statement on Facebook on December 27 dismissing the article - produced using AI technology - as "entirely false". "Nothing even similar to this story occurred on or around Christmas, or even in recent memory for the area they described," the post said. "It seems this 'news' outlet's AI writes fiction they have no problem publishing to readers."

NewsBreak, which is headquartered in Mountain View, California and has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, told Reuters it removed the article on December 28, four days after publication.

The company said "the inaccurate information originated from the content source," and provided a link to the website, adding: "When NewsBreak identifies any inaccurate content or any violation of our community standards, we take prompt action to remove that content." The operators of the website, findplace.xyz, did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment. The police declined to provide further comment.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/top-news-app-us-has-chinese-origins-writes-fiction-with-help-ai-2024-06-05/

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I had noticed the past couple years that bot accounts would push that fake site on "Nextdoor". Glad it was finally outed in the media.

[John1956PA]

1. Here is the link to a previous DU post about this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19011200

As I mentioned in that previous link, Newsbreak has an ap for web users in almost every locale in the U.S. who gleefully jump at the chance to download them. The aps supposedly provide aggregated stories on news, sports and other features pertaining to their respective locations. It is surprising to me how those users have no concern about the reputability of the source of the aps which they download.

[Layzeebeaver]

2. The Bowling Green Massacre Part 2

just sayin'

[erronis]

3. Be very cautious of using a downloaded app when the web interface will work fine.

Apps have much more access to your phone's internals than do a browser and are a common way to spread malware.

From Cory Doctorow (long piece as is his wont..)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/

Pluralistic: Surveillance pricing (05 Jun 2024)
One of these companies is Plexure, partly owned by McDonald's, which provides the surveillance-pricing back-ends for McD's, Ikea, 7-Eleven, White Castle and others – basically, any time a company gives you a hard-sell to order via its apps rather than its storefronts or its website, you should assume you're getting twiddled, hard.

[FakeNoose]

6. Exactly right ... there's a reason why those aps are "free"

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

10. YOU are the product then nt

[Raven123]

8. It may be less convenient, but I use no news apps

You know they are filtering.

[4lbs]

4. findplace.xyz ? Umm.... why even trust anything from a site like that?

All these new domains should be suspect until shown to be otherwise.

The regular domains have had decades of history behind them, these umm.... no.

[area51]

5. "prompt action"

Means removing the BS article after 4 days?

[niyad]

7. Several people send me stuff from that site all the time, despite my saying

it is not a legitimate news site. I trash it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. A browser and DU are much superior to an "app". News gets verified here.

[FakeNoose]

11. I like to believe it's curated by other high-minded DU members

We're not all on the same wave-length, for certain. But we all have high standards and we want the best quality news shared on DU. Occasionally there might be a clunker, but there are ways to get it weeded out quickly.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. Yes, lots of eyeballs, brains, expertise, and POVs.

[IronLionZion]

12. its users, who are predominantly female, above the age of 45, without college degrees, and live in suburban or rural

its users, who are predominantly female, above the age of 45, without college degrees, and live in suburban or rural parts of the U.S

I suppose MAGA world created a demand for pure BS and Chinese AI companies are eager to fill the need. Getting money for lying is Trump's whole life.

The problem with these news aggregators is you can miss noticing the original source is completely fake. Literally no truth to it at all. Just some BS posted on some website nobody has ever heard of or would ever look at. But they make it look real enough for viewers to believe that it's news.

MAGA made up lies about "Bowling Green Massacre" and "No go zones" and some completely fictional terrorist attack in Sweden, and so on. They just make up stuff to promote their agenda and now it's AI making up stuff to get clicks from ad revenue.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. I'm happy with DU as a source of news

All the news articles are faithfully produced by Grovelbot.