Fake News International

Fake news is not only in the United States.  The signing of the Executive Order from the President of the United States has turned into Fake News for International countries.

What is said to Jamaicans?

At US Embassy in Kingston, a Loop News spokesman said that the news website called Radiogtv has posted an article which falsely claim that President Donald Trump has signed an executive order limiting only 100 visas per year for individual traveling from Jamaica.  He stated that he had no such knowledge of this executive order and has not been instructed by the United States government to implement an edict restricting Jamaica to just 100 visas a year.

The Radiogtv article entitled, “ 100 US Visa per year for Jamaica-Donald Trump signs Executive Order” reads: “The President of the United States Donald Trump has signed an executive order placing a quota on the number of visas to be issued by the United States Embassy in Kingston to Jamaican nationals.”

It continues by stating that “The executive order, which bans 7 countries from visiting the United States granted Jamaica only 100 visas per year. This means that the Embassy is entitled to issue visas to only 100 lucky applicants yearly until maybe a new government takes over to make changes to such laws.”

So because of this Fake News article, the spokesman from the US Embassy in Kingston’s is telling all Jamaican that:  “We are unaware of an executive order pertaining to Jamaica but we are fully aware of this story and the effect it is having.”

Thus, the Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness decided to speak with the credible Loop News about article adding: “ This is totally untrue and it is just another case of fake news.”  He said also that there was an article, which stated, “He supposedly signed away Jamaica to become part of the United States?”

What is said to Canadians?

Here is another Radiogtv website article about Canada. Their article stated that Canada parliament approved a visa lottery program similar to the US DV visa lottery that will give opportunity to winners to settle in Canada.  Individual will be able to work and obtain Canadian Citizenship after 4 years for 16 eligible countries.  Eligible counties include Oman, Ethiopia, Philippines, Ghana, Guyana, Jamaica, Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan, Zambia, Thailand, Uganda, Fiji and Lesotho.

Under the new visa lottery program, every winner is required to have obtained at least high school education or two years of work experience. Registration for the entries will be opened on March 1, 2017.  Also stating that entrants will be notified of their selection and interview beginning August 1, 2017.  In clearing up the fake news the Canadian government website stated that a widespread rumor that Canada is due to begin a new immigration lottery, similar to the visa lottery in the United States, is untrue. This story stems from an article that was published online telling citizens from 16 countries they could apply as of March 1, 2017.  The government of Canada has not made any public announcement about such a lottery, and there is no reason to believe that such a program will be launched.  All of these story are being circulated appears to be fraudulent.

The false story lists a range of eligibility requirements for interested citizens of Oman, Ethiopia, Philippines, Ghana, Guyana, Jamaica, Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan, Zambia, Thailand, Uganda, Fiji, and Lesotho.

The Canadian government on their official website has stated that this story does not cite a government source.  It has also incorrectly named the department overseeing immigration to Canada as 'Canadian Immigration and Citizenship' (the correct name of this office is Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada).  The government wants the people from the named countries not to engage these services of any individual, entity, or group that tells you that they can assist with an application to this fake program.

Background of Radiogtv (Fake News) website:

“Radiogtv is an online news website with a sole purpose of breaking news and rumors that covers global politics, business, technology, entertainment, science, health and media. They sometimes check other site to corroborate the story rendered with no contact and leaving no office details.

Loop News, The US Embassy in Kingston:

Loop is the number one source for Caribbean-wide local, regional and global content providing the best coverage of news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, business, community and events. With our trusted team of journalists working locally in each market, we strive to bring you all the breaking and most up-to-date coverage of events, from a team you can trust. Loop now provides local news in Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Cayman, Curacao, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Nauru and Vanuatu. They have the bios on there website.

What does the folks from Apple have to say about Fake News:

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that people who want “to get the most clicks, and not tell the most truth are spreading falsehoods It’s killing people's minds in a way."  Tech companies are now been criticized for doing too little to weed out fake news.  Cook states that firms have a duty to "create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news" without curbing free speech.  He calls for a "massive" campaign to raise awareness of untrustworthy news stories.

What does the Google and Facebook individuals have to say about Fake News?

Initially, Facebook denied that fake news could have seriously affected the election. But recently it announced that it was taking action. The social-media giant said it would work with fact-checking organizations such as Snopes and Polifact to identify problematic news stories and flag them as disputed, so that people know that they are questionable. It will also penalize suspect stories so that they are less likely to appear in people's news feeds.

The leaders of Google and Facebook are joined in the battle by academics and data scientists who started to work on the subject years before bogus news stories were suspected of helping sway the 2016 presidential election.  Their work has yielded tools that are helping to track how "alternative facts" are spread, and how others let you identify fake stories or blocking them altogether.  Some of these are still in the baby steps, but they're keys, if largely unsung, part of the effort to tamp down the spread of fake stories.

                                                                        Work Cited

Farrell, H. (2017, January 20). Facebook and Falsehood. Chronicle of Higher Education. pp B9-B11.