When it comes to fake news, we are the weakest link
A new study of 126,000 tweets has found that its not just bots that love fake news.
Since the UK’s surprise vote in favour of Brexit in June 2016 and, a few months later, the similarly unexpected election of Donald Trump in the US, there’s been much ink spent on poring over what social media is doing to our democracy. Rather than bringing people together (which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has espoused is his company’s main goal) social media is seemingly even more adept at finding and exacerbating the fault lines in our democracies’ internal points of disagreement, and in demonising either side of the debate and, therefore, making finding a ‘middle way’ even more difficult.
That inherent capability has been exploited and ‘weaponised’ by Russia in an information war against the West, using tactics it first developed after it controversially annexed the Ukraine in 2014 — something that all of the major US intelligence agencies (the CIA, FBI and NSA) and social-media companies are in agreement on.
‘Divide and conquer’ is a strategy that humans have been using against each other for thousands of years, where creating internal dissent destabilises your enemy and makes them unable to deal with outside threats.
HOW TO SPOT FAKE NEWS
The proliferation of fake news is a development that almost makes you want to swear off social media entirely — and though I like to think Aussies are a generally congenial bunch who get along well with each other, there’s little doubt that the tactics used by Russia in the US and UK could also be employed here.
I believe the key to fighting this information war is education — specifically, understanding what fake news is and why it’s effective. A study recently conducted by MIT using 126,000 tweets spanning 10 years has discovered that fake news is crafted to generate an emotional response — something which prompts people to share that story much further and faster. If something in your Facebook or Twitter feed promotes an instant and strong emotional response, chances are good it’s been crafted to do just that... and is probably also bullshit. ‘Think before you share’ is probably the best defence against the negative effects of fake news, but knowing how and why it’s created can also be an immense help. For the latter, I’d suggest checking out Bad News, a cheeky online game at getbadnews.com that teaches you how to craft fake news and should, therefore, help inoculate you against it.