WAKE UP TO THE FAKE

Apart from enacting fake news law, we must develop the ability and sophistication to evaluate content

THE war against fake news is noble, seemingly necessary, too. It is not just us, it seems everyone all over the world is talking about it, and it is premised upon the idea that we should not be subjected to lies, deceit or half-truths masquerading as the real thing.

The truth and nothing but the truth is the way to go. We cannot be spreading falsehoods, planting slander and doing mischief to toy with opinions and emotions.

Yet, in the days of social media — oh, how often we hear this phrase these days — we are actually co-conspirators to the industry of faking news. Thus, is it not better that we lower our expectations when dealing with those who are equipped with a smartphone and a data plan?

Fake news exists due to the opportunistic happenstance of technological advancement and human proclivity to indulge in lies and gossip. These are fertile beds for fake news.

Additionally, the ancient sitdown-around-a-fire has been replaced by chat groups, and our most important appendage is the smartphone.

It has been suggested that fake news had played a part in the last United States presidential election, and is expected to feature yet again in this year’s congressional mid-term polls.

There are presumably many reasons for fake content, but most important is that someone is creating it to win our hearts and minds. Truth is an inconvenience to the greater cause, perhaps, so let’s just falsify. The end justifying the means?

We are also too quick to spread content — we all have them in our chat groups, the most active “forwarder”. We put caveats, such as “from next window” or “cut and paste”, as a way of saying, perhaps, with arms raised in innocence, that we are not responsible for the content nor even perhaps its nefarious intention. But, forwarding as received without any attempt to verify energises fake news. We can’t absolve ourselves from blame if indeed the content we pass on are lies. We remain complicit in the agenda of the fake news creator.

These days, it gets rather difficult to distinguish between the truth and the not so true. Content is well made and much of it is also compelling, especially if it shares our world view.

For instance, we are likely to accept an untruth told of someone we dislike, giving it perhaps a thumbs up or to push it through. What happens when it is a lie? Tough luck?

Fake news thrives because we are too lazy to bother to check. A simple Google search on the very device we use to receive it would likely offer us some insight into the veracity of the content. There are millions of content items surrounding us, from self-help guides to instant recipes to religious sermons to silliness and commentaries to breaking news, and existing among them are many forms of fakery. Often, the assumption is that fake news is likely to be related to efforts to win our hearts and minds in the realm of politics. Yet, fakery extends beyond that. There are fake claims in medical health, false promises on business ventures, misleading public information and make-believe miracle cures.

A critical effort against untruths on social media is vigilance against fakery in the millions of content items crisscrossing the ether.

Any attempt by officialdom to police fake news will certainly fail as the poor chaps assigned to do so are likely to be swamped. Instead, every single one of us needs to be vigilant against elements of fakery. We need to be able to spot them and kill them by not spreading them to another.

How do we identify what is the truth and what is not, or what is satire and what is deception? How do we determine what type of falsehood should be prosecuted, and what should be allowed to die a natural death? Should the punitive measures we impose on those generating slander of public figures or institutions be equal to those posting end-of-theworld messages or those promoting dubious cures? Should the law deal only with the social misfit at ground zero of fake news creation, or the millions abetting by making the content viral?

The drafting of laws to combat fake news would seem reactionary if we do not take a holistic approach to the problem. The biggest battle against fake content is how to deal with the millions of people, inherently hungry for things to share, who unknown to them, have been enlisted to be foot soldiers for some nefarious agenda.

Perhaps, the best way to combat fake news is to raise our level of sophistication in evaluating content. We should be taught at the very least to identify tell-tale signs of deceits and untruths.

It will be a great concern if we are unable to develop a culture that is savvy and discerning, not only of the quality, but also the veracity, of the content we consume. Perhaps, we should be instilling this ability from young, in schools perhaps, just like how we teach our kids hygiene and values.

Enacting new laws, notwithstanding, there must also be a strategy to develop our natural sixth sense on content, that ability and sophistication to evaluate them.

Every single one of us needs to be vigilant against elements of fakery. We need to be able to spot them and kill them by not spreading them to another.

The writer, a former NSTP group managing editor, is now a social media observer.