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| Image received from Google Images |
Is the outpouring of fake news seen in media today a phenomenon specific to America?
Max Greenwood's article for The Hill, Syrian president: Report accusing regime of torture is 'fake news', explains of how Syrian President Bashar Assad criticizes Amnesty International for falsely reporting that between 2011 and 2015, upwards of 13,000 people were killed as inmates within Syrian military prisons. President Assad claims that there is no real evidence, and the evidence that Amnesty International has is "forged", as Greenwood explains.
This article is just an example of how other countries are dealing with fake news as well. Just like anything, America is never alone in a problem, especially if it is one that is preying on the ignorance of other people. As fake news becomes more and more prevalent it becomes harder to distinguish rather information is real or fake.
However, most of the fake news is not
being published by major news organizations, but rather by individuals and
small groups, as Craig
Silverman talked about on the
Fresh
Air radio show by NPR
with Dave Davies. The surprising thing is just how many of these
individuals and groups from European Countries, along with others, are writing
fake news about American politics intended for American audiences.
Americans are as happy as can be to share that fake news through Facebook and other social media sources. Americans read an article and agree with the sentiment being presented, click like and share. Then the next person sees that article shared by their friend, maybe they assume their friend is more in line with politics. So, they assume the article has to be true. This is how Facebook has become the "driver" of news, as Silverman called it.
Americans are as happy as can be to share that fake news through Facebook and other social media sources. Americans read an article and agree with the sentiment being presented, click like and share. Then the next person sees that article shared by their friend, maybe they assume their friend is more in line with politics. So, they assume the article has to be true. This is how Facebook has become the "driver" of news, as Silverman called it.
Why would individuals in other countries write fake news about American
politics?
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| Image received from Google Images |
At first thought, someone might think
that an individual or group would do so to influence the politics in favor their
own country. While this may or may not happen, it is not the reason of
the majority found. The Guardian and Buzzfeed News both report stories about Veles,
Macedonia; a city with an unusual amount of fake news reports being generated
from there. The Guardian's Dan
Tynan explains how
the Guardian found over 150 internet domains related to fake news stories that
were registered out of Veles. Still, why would people in Macedonia care
about American politics. Veles is a city in the center of The Republic of Macedonia with a population of
about 40,000 to 50,000 and about 25% of the population is unemployed, as
Silverman explains To Davies.
The interesting part, is that the majority
of these individuals are teenagers. With the unemployment so high, the
adults who do have jobs only making an average annual income of less than
$5,000 per year, according to Silverman, the teenagers' pure motivation is to
make money, and some of them make a lot of it. NBC's Alexander Smith and
Vladimir Banic interviewed one of these teens who made over $60,000 in 6 months during the election campaigns
of 2016. Once these teenagers realized the potential to make easy money,
the fake news exiting from Velez, Macedonia skyrocketed.
So, these teenagers' in a little town 6,000 miles away take advantage of Americans' eagerness to voice their participation in the political realm to line their own pockets. The American citizenry is encouraged by the writing of our Founding Fathers to be informed and take part in the politics our country. Thomas Jefferson once said, "An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy." Therefore, should they, or anyone else, be allowed to deceive the American people for their own gain?
However, if people should not be allowed to publish fake news, is that infringing on the First Amendment right? Given the fact that the internet was nonexistent when the Constitution was written it is unclear if government restriction of content published outside the U.S. would fall under the First Amendment. Still government intervention could be seen as preventing American citizens from reading whatever they want. So pressure is building on social media companies to censor content to slow the spread of fake news. Also, where is the line drawn as to what would be "fake news"? When one thinks about it, it may not be that simple to define "news" or "fake news".
Even then, say there was a stop put to fake news. Would it really make the citizenry more politically savvy? It makes no difference if there are individuals producing fake news or not. If the American citizenry can't learn to discern fake news from real news then they will continue to be ignorant. At which point Thomas Jefferson continued to said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
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