Mass misinformation: peddling lies as news

While fake news has existed for millennia, the deliberate dissemination of false information reached its apotheosis during the 2016 US presidential campaign, undermining American democracy and jeopardising global security by benefiting the unpredictable and erratic Republican Donald Trump. During the campaign, level-headed people repeatedly asked, “Do we want his finger on the nuclear trigger?” But, Trump voters did not consider the risks.

The campaign was afflicted with false reports spread by Facebook, Google and Twitter. One held that the pope had endorsed Trump, another said Democrats had bused paid anti-Trump protesters to sites where he was appearing, and a third reported that Trump’s rival Democrat Hillary Clinton had lost her lead in the polls.

A story on fake news site WorldPoliticus claimed that Clinton would be indicted in 2017 for breaches of security related to her use of private rather than government email while secretary of state. The false report, manufactured by teenagers in Macedonia, generated more than 140,000 shares, responses, and comments on Facebook. While Trump reaped political rewards, Macedonians made money off advertising.

These youngsters have set up more than 100 US websites which have Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of followers, reported Buzzfeed, after making a study of false news sites. The Macedonians chose to back Trump perhaps because his supporters were more likely to believe phony news than left-leaning individuals; perhaps, because Trump backers rely more on Facebook for news; perhaps, because they are more gullible.
Founder of the firm Disinfomedia, Jestin Coler, told US National Public Radio that anyone with a blog could find large Facebook groups comprising “rabid Trump supporters” eager to ingest false reports on his opponents. The election campaign “caused an explosion in the number of (fake news) sites” and of fake news accounts on Facebook. False reports were also picked up by mainstream media, promoting credibility.

A site calling itself RealTrue News put out a story quoting Clinton as calling supporters of her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders “a bucket of losers.” This was picked up by pro-Trump Fox television news and broadcast to millions of viewers. Trump backers generally ignored Clinton campaign denials.

Russia stands accused of issuing fake news as well as hacking Democratic and Republican party sites during the campaign. The US had set up bodies to combat Russian “disinformation” but serious efforts were not made until 2014. In 2015, sites promoting a pro-Russian agenda were observed as very pro-Trump and putting out pro-Trump propaganda.

In an address the day before the election, US President Barack Obama warned that voters were “accepting crazy stuff as normal” and observed that if lies were repeated often enough “people start believing (them),” particularly if they appear on social media. Obama’s words echoed those of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels who said, “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” He also observed, “The bigger the lie, the better.”

Propaganda campaigns
Perhaps, Trump’s campaign managers actually read Goebb-els who also advised not to try propagandising intellectuals but focus on the “man in the street.” He said, “Arguments must, therefore, be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intell-ect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.” Anyone could have found this advice at the top of a list of 25 Goebbels’ sayings on A-Z quotes, two clicks away.

Goebbels did not have social media to employ in his propaganda campaigns. While the internet has provided the technology, and Facebook, Google and Twitter, the platforms used by fabricators to promulgate false news, they have only partially tackled the problem by banning fake sites from generating income from online advertising.
This has not halted the proliferation of such sites. Mass misinformation, in turn, has
led to the creation of sites meant to counter fake news; among them are Snopes, PolitiFact, and FactCheck.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged that his firm would “vet all prospective publishers and monitor existing ones to ensure” they would not put out fake news. Facebook also attempted to flag fake sites but, apparently, dropped this practice as this could include reliable sources.

Fake news sites as well as social media carrying false reports hide behind the US Constitution’s First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech, including freedom to circulate false reports. Hate speech is one form of social and political abuse which can, however, be tackled by censorship and legal referral, but few resort to prosecution.
The US is not the only country experiencing a tsunami of fake news. Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, Italy, Britain, Sweden, Australia, China and Brazil are also struggling to combat it.

Fake news was used effectively by campaigners for Britain’s exit from the European Union while an Indian fraudster repor-ted that the new Rs 2,000 note would contain tracking technology that could detect notes buried 120 meters belong the ground. This went viral in India's mainstream media and created a stir. So far, India has arrested only people whose falsehoods could cause social conflict.