Years ago, when anyone wanted to get at (or get back at) someone for a perceived wrong or as a result of envy, the trick was to find whoever the worst gossip in the community was and start a rumour. Without fail, in a few days, it would be all over the grapevine and to the hapless victim would fall the tedious task of constantly defending him/herself and correcting untruths. The victim might have an idea as to who would have started the rumour, if he/she knew his/her enemies, but this was not always the case.
The advent of the internet and moreover social media has changed this game drastically. Anyone who is the slightest bit tech savvy can set up multi online profiles and websites and do the same thing much more effectively. And because of the ubiquity of the internet, false information is disseminated at record speeds and can reach millions in minutes. Worse still, so-called ‘stories’ spread via social media sites can remain on the world wide web for infinity and might pop up during random searches. This increases the propensity for misinformation to damage reputations given people’s tendencies to believe what they read, because to use a Guyanese idiom: “It must gat some truth in it”.
The attempts to spread fabricated stories online are probably as old as the internet. It was in 1995 that US writer David Mikkelson set up the website snopes.com, which is widely known as an “online touchstone of rumour research”. He and his wife Barbara have been dedicated to not only debunking myths that appear online, but, wherever possible, supplying the correct information instead. The problem is that there are millions more people online now than there were in 1995 and unfortunately the majority seem not to be concerned with fact checking, hence the rise of ‘fake news’.
The term ‘fake news’ was likely coined during last year’s US presidential campaign, if it was not, then it was certainly popularized in that period. But it is not isolated to the United States. No, ‘fake news’ is a worldwide phenomenon, which is growing. So much so that Guyana has seen its fair share of it. Bogus websites have been popping up in newsfeeds with lurid headlines and stories that are nothing but complete fantasy. Some of the more recent ones claimed that former president Donald Ramotar was very ill in a hospital overseas; President Granger was in the process of making Guyana a US colony; Miss Guyana Universe was charged with drugs in the United Kingdom. All of these fabrications had photos of the subjects attached and quotes from so-called ‘officials’ – none of whom were real people.
What is disheartening is seeing people share these stories on social media as the sharing not only gives credence to the farcical posts, but allows for the wider dissemination of falsities some of which are damning.
But let’s be real here, ‘fake’ and ‘news’ really do not go together. As any journalist worth his or her salt would tell you, news is based on facts; hence the story, whether for print, broadcast or online media must be factual to be called news. If the information is false in any way, then what is published in whatever format is fiction.
To counter the rise of such fiction, the popular social media platform Facebook has systems in place for persons to report any suspicious story. These reports are then looked over by a consortium of journalists from ABC News, Politifact, FactCheck, Snopes and the Associated Press, and if they find it lacking it would be tagged ‘disputed’ so as to warn Facebook users. Facebook has also installed software that flags fake stories that are getting a lot of attention. This is apart from its regular service which allows users to report content that is vulgar, racist or discriminatory.
Meanwhile, as at the end of January, Google said it had banned 200 publishers from AdSense, which is a Google ad placement service that automatically serves text and display ads on participating sites based on their audiences. It said the ban was part of “an update to an existing policy that prohibits sites that mislead users with their content.”
Additionally, the St Petersburg, Florida-based Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism instruction, is currently offering a course that helps journalists escape the misinformation minefield. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, in collaboration with two other organisations recently hosted a conference which was attended by more than 100 journalists that sought to find ways to address “the various facets of the misinformation (and disinformation) problem.”
Aside from all that is being done consumers have a part to play in not helping to spread false information. Most of it is easy to spot – the so-called ‘news’ sites have dubious names. Also, fact checking on Snopes is free. It really just requires a bit of thoughtfulness.