Fake News and International Visas

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

In Jamaica, at the US Embassy in Kingston, a Loop News spokesman said that the news website called Radiogtv has posted an article which falsely claimed that President Donald Trump has signed an executive order limiting only 100 visas per year for individuals 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, “ One Hundred 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.” The writers continue to state, “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 is having to tell all Jamaican wishing to travel that: he is unaware of an executive order pertaining to Jamaica but he is aware of this story and the effect it is having. Thus, the Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness decided to speak with the Loop News regarding the article adding:

“This is totally untrue and it is just another case of fake news.”  He said also that there was an article that stated, “He supposedly signed away Jamaica to become part of the United States?”

The Canadian article from Radiogtv website, states that Canada’s Parliament approved a visa lottery program similar to the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is in the United States that is said to be a congressionally mandated lottery program for receiving a United States Permanent Resident Card.   Visa lottery is supposed to also give opportunities to winners to settle in Canada.  

Individuals 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 in March 2017.  Also stating that entrants will be notified of their selection and interview beginning August 1st, 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 1st, 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 stories are being circulated appear to be fraudulent. The false story lists a range of eligibility requirements for interested citizens of these 16 countries.

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 you with the application to this fake program.

One can assume that Radiogtv’s website would provide the most authentic news.  Instead  “their sole purpose is breaking news and rumors that covers global politics, business, technology, entertainment, science, health and media.”  The Radiogtv writers will check other websites to corroborate the story rendered with no contact and leaving no office details. 

As compared to Radiogtv, Loop is another news website that people find more reliable.  Loop news is the number one source for the Caribbean-wide local, regional, and global content providing the best coverage of news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, business, communities and events.  They stated, “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.” They have the bios on their website. Apple, one of the most popular technological companies in the U.S., shared its opinion about Fake News.  This is what the CEO Tim Cook stated to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, “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 being criticized for doing too little to weed out fake news.  Cook states, “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. In addition to changing the information vetted.

Initially, Facebook denied that fake news could have seriously affected the election.  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.

Academic and data scientists who started to work on the subject years before bogus news stories were suspected of helping sway the 2016 Presidential Election join the leaders of Google and Facebook in the battle.  Their work has yielded tools that are helping to track how "alternative facts" are spread, and how others let you identify fake stories or block them altogether.  Some of these are still in the baby steps, but they are the keys, too largely unsung, the part of the effort to tamp down the spread of fake stories.

All of this has not only affected common citizens.  It also impacts big companies, which sponsor applications that we use on a daily basis.  These types of websites are actually creating trust issues between citizens and their native countries.  This should not be the case because most people depend on news website to share honest information.