For Francis, fake news goes back to the Garden of Eden
ROME — The serpent in the Garden of Eden hissed the first fake news to Eve and it all went downhill from there, Pope Francis writes in a major document about the phenomenon of fake news released on Wednesday.
“We need to unmask what could be called the ‘snake-tactics’ used by those who disguise themselves in order to strike at any time and place,” the pope writes in a message ahead of what the church has designated as its World Day of Social Communications, in May.
Arguing that the “crafty” serpent’s effective disinformation campaign to get Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge “began the tragic history of human sin,” he adds, “I would like to contribute to our shared commitment to stemming the spread of fake news.”
Pope Francis has worn many hats since his election in 2013 — Vatican reformer; global advocate for refugees, the poor, and world peace; and, more recently, defender of bishops accused of covering up for pedophile priests.
But in a varyingly sophisticated, spiritual and questionable analysis of the fake news epidemic, the 81-year-old pontiff tried on the cap of contemporary media critic to address an issue that has wreaked havoc and undermined democracies from the U.S. to Europe and beyond.
In doing so, he offered a largely clear-eyed assessment of the problem, its social impact, and the responsibility of social media giants and journalists. And he called on news consumers to break out of their comfortable echo chambers and cushy news feeds by seeking out different points of view.
But at times the pope also conflated fake news, which is politically or economically motivated disinformation, with a sensational style of journalism he dislikes — a muddying of the waters that many democracy advocates have worried is corrosive to a free press and to the ideal of an informed populace.
He also failed to mention the political leaders who have used the phrase to discredit journalists.
Betraying a somewhat antiquated view that separates deadtree and digital outlets, the pope defined fake news as the spreading “online or in the traditional media” of disinformation that is intended to deceive and manipulate consumers for political and economic interests.
He observed that fake news is effective because, like the snake in the garden, it insidiously mimics real news, and is “captious” — pope for clickbait — meaning that it grabs people’s attention by exploiting “emotions like anxiety, contempt, anger and frustration.”
Francis identified social networks as the delivery systems for such fake news.
“Untrue stories can spread so quickly that even authoritative denials fail to contain the damage,” he writes, adding that those living virtual lives in like-minded silos allow disinformation to thrive and that the absence of opposing viewpoints turns people into “unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas.”
Russian hackers took advantage of just such conditions in the 2016 U.S. elections, sowing discord and attempting to sway the electorate through sophisticated influence campaigns. Francis steered clear of such real-world examples. Instead, he broadly identified greed as a key engine for the spread of fake news.
To combat fake news, the pope called for personal efforts to unmask disinformation, but he also praised educational programs, regulatory efforts and social media companies’ progress in verifying personal identities “concealed behind millions of digital profiles.”