Earlier this year, a lone gunman stormed into an Islamic center in Quebec, Canada and fired rounds at worshippers, claiming six lives. Sources vouched for his adherence to right wing nationalist movements that espoused dangerous extremist ideologies stemming and possibly reinforced from the perpetrator’s consumption of a highly tailored social media news feed.
Last month, a Toronto-based religious leader found himself in hot ‘waters’ when a widely circulated story accompanying his photo wrongly accused him of turning away scores of non-Muslim victims seeking shelter during the deadly Hurricane Harvey – in Texas, US..
Last week, Donald Trump rubbished media coverage of the significant lack of disaster relief work after US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was battered by Hurricane Maria, as fake news. This is just one and the latest of many fabricated stories that have been perpetuated by his camp during and after the 2016 elections in an attempt to discredit mainstream media.
Every single day, unwary persons are made victims to hateful rhetoric; personal pictures stolen off the Web and plastered onto provocative and distressing memes for the world to see and spread.
A flurry of fake news writers have found literal and gainful employment whilst seated in their living rooms manufacturing sensationalist stories far removed from reality with the intent to defraud readers and push vested agendas.
Furthermore, reversing clips to distort content, use of digitized graphics to depict false reality or technology that manipulates facial expressions in real-time can be done remotely with little paraphernalia.
From doctored news stories, photos, audio and videos that render lopsided narratives, yellow journalism has snowballed from a niggling virus to a full blown epidemic. This is the worrying truth of a post-truth era that is fully immersed in an active market of fake news.
With a current cyber population bordering on four billion translating to a 51.7% penetration, and an increased consumer base of a dizzying 976.4% since Y2K, present-day Internet is akin to the Wild Wild West.
The implications of this monopolizing and highly incertitude medium is grounds for a non-partisan governance propped upright by codes and ethics that enhance the judicious use of this powerful tool. Tech giants Google and Facebook are unwittingly donning the role of Big Brother and are being summoned to invest in means to sift through fraudulent and imposturous data to deliver and make accessible quality results. This means developing algorithms that draw on legitimate news sources and flag satire or opinion pieces or inane ramblings for what they are.
The abundance of manufactured news also behooves the need for greater empathy amongst its consumers, now more than ever. Not to consume information at face value but to dig deeper and engage in thorough,multi- platform research before dissemination. ‘Mean tweets’ exist because the Internet affords the appeal of anonymity; to tarnish with impunity. The responsibility lies on us to ensure our technical ecosystem is conducive to responsible digital experiences that are ubiquitous, penetrative and impactful as they are safe, inclusive and solicitous for users at large.
Falsification and misrepresentation is directly symptomatic of the rapid rise of prolific technologies like machine learning and AI. While it would be a behemoth exercise to put an end to fake news or overzealous reactions in its entirety, this trend underlines the importance of competency and awareness to distinguish and digest ‘truthiness’ over synthesized jargon.
In doing our part to ebb the flow of misinformation or vitriol, it becomes a civic duty to do our due diligence through substantiation and cross-checks of news sources prior to adding to the cyber landfill.
Engage in corrective action by not passing the buck on erroneous or dubious news and promptly reporting Internet abuse.
Consumers need to partake in the broader conversation that ensures the objective alignment of advancing technology with the values of human dignity, common good and social decency. With a society engrossed and so deeply impacted by technology, more academic and field efforts that advance cyberethics are to be at the forefront to address the augmented needs of a surging audience.