Displaying items by tag: fake news

Spain's government has a new strategy to tackle the spread of online disinformation. The procedure was approved last month and a special government commission should combat the issue. Madrid said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is accompanied by an ‘unprecedented infodemic’. Spanish authorities will monitor the internet for disinformation campaigns, investigate their origin, and implement a ‘policy response’ if necessary. This response may take the form of a diplomatic warning if a foreign state is behind such a campaign. The Madrid press association has accepted the government's wish to combat disinformation, but have noted a ‘clear risk’ that the government will act ‘as a censor rather than a guarantor of the truth’.

A research team from Kings College London suggests social media news sites may need to do more to regulate misleading content as people who get their news from social media sources are more likely to break lockdown rules. Its report says, ‘Unregulated social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube may present a health risk to the UK because they are spreading conspiracy theories about coronavirus. One wonders how long this state of affairs can be allowed to persist.’ The study concludes, ‘Conspiracy beliefs act to inhibit health-protective behaviours, and social media act as a vector for such beliefs.’ In response, Facebook says it has removed a huge amount of misinformation from its sites, and directed 3.5 million visits to the official NHS and Government Covid-19 information sites.

Smartphones and social media have connected families who are separated in lockdown. They have also generated a blizzard of dangerous fake news. In Bradford online posts of non-white patients being left to die in hospitals are being shared thousands of times among black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities. One reason for the high number of deaths in this people group is that they often live in densely overcrowded housing. Many have diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease - all high risk factors. Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary said, ‘I know from my work in African epidemics that where there is fear and panic, and patients become isolated from their families, it doesn't take long for rumours and fake news stories to start circulating. We have noticed that some patients are scared to be admitted, and some want to self-discharge, because they think doctors are trying to kill them.’

Did you know that COVID-19 is caused by 5G networks, and that you can cure it with a hairdryer or with a drug that isn't FDA-approved? None of this is true. Yet millions around the world believe this as part of a vast storm of conspiracy theories, scams, and virus disinformation on the internet and social media. In this season of fear and danger there is an enormous need by the public for information that is comforting and reassuring. irrespective of whether it's true. The UN and WHO call this an ‘infodemic,’ which is spreading alongside the pandemic, complicating efforts to slow and treat COVID-19. They have even published a handy myth-buster - for example, drinking alcohol doesn't kill the virus, no matter what the President of Belarus says.

A plural, sustainable and diverse media is vital for a healthy democracy, but the UK has just three companies dominating 83% of national newspaper circulation. Last year a survey of 250 political articles and news segments from the largest (online and television) providers revealed that the anchors made 29 false statements or claims, a further 66 clear instances of misleading or distorted coverage including misquotations, reliance on single source accounts, omission of essential facts or right of reply, and repeated value-based assumptions made by broadcasters without evidence or qualification. In total, a quarter of the sample contained at least one documented inaccuracy or distortion. At this time of election media fervour, please pray for an end to the overwhelming imbalance of news reporting that this survey reveals. Pray for improvements and changes to be made in reporting so that the UK communications environment functions in the public interest. See also the next article, Christians in media.

The media influence people, shape worldviews, and can ultimately bring about change in society. While the world gets constantly bombarded by images and messages that distort God’s truth and shift people further from Him, Christians in the media desire to see them used to bring about positive changes. Alan Rusbridger, for twenty years editor-in-chief of the Guardian, recently warned, ‘We are, for the first time in modern history, facing the prospect of how societies would exist without reliable news’. Christians can pray for restraints to be put on technology owned by individuals with particular agendas. Pray for an end to false revelations and closely guarded secrets being spread at the click of a button. May dangerous misinformation be blocked by up-to-date infiltration technology. Pray for authors, anchor men and women, researchers and recorders to be true to the facts and avoid fake news stories. May quality news reporting and higher ethics be established across all media outlets.

Since Hong Kong’s anti-government protests began, Beijing’s state TV (CCTV) has gone to great lengths to demonise protesters and mislead Chinese and international audiences about the nature of the movement. CCTV’s flagship news programme runs segments denouncing the protests, claiming they are linked to ‘external forces’. It also reported that a protester had blinded a woman, whereas she was actually struck in the eye by a police bean-bag round. The station’s international arm released videos and graphics on YouTube and Facebook, comparing protesters to Islamist militants and claiming they are backed by US spy agencies. Recently a news video platform urged its 89 million followers to identify, investigate, and publish online the personal information of Hong Kong protesters and journalists - thus targeting the political enemies of the Communist party, which celebrated its 70th anniversary on 1 October. It has taken China less than 70 years to emerge from isolation to become one of the world's greatest economic powers.

A government campaign to vaccinate 40 million children under the age of five against polio had to be suspended following serious attacks on workers and police in just one week. A policeman protecting polio workers was killed in Bannu, and a polio worker was injured with a knife in Lahore by a man refusing to allow his child to be vaccinated. Two others connected with different polio teams were also killed, and one man was seriously wounded. Further attacks on staff in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab were reported. The violence was preceded by a series of rumours intended to derail Pakistan’s campaign to eradicate the disease. On 22 April several thousand children were taken to hospital in north-west Pakistan by panicked parents after a video circulated on Facebook in which a man attested that children were falling sick following vaccinations. A mob set alight a health centre following the same rumour.

Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary, has called on social media giants to ‘purge’ material promoting self-harm and suicide, in the wake of links to teenager Molly Russell's suicide. They could be banned if they fail to comply. The 14-year-old took her life after viewing disturbing content about suicide on Instagram. Her father believed Instagram ‘helped kill my daughter’. Instagram owners, Facebook, said they were ‘deeply sorry’. The charity Papyrus, working to prevent youth suicide, had a spike in calls to their helpline after the BBC reported the link between suicide and social media. Meanwhile, Facebook removed 364 ‘fake’ pages (with 790,000 followers) for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour as part of a network that originated in Russia. Facebook said the page administrators and account owners represented themselves as independent news pages or general interest pages, but all were linked to employees of Russian-owned Sputnik and the facts were false. See

‘Fake news’ threatens honest debate and democracy. Donald Trump’s favourite term was named 2017's word of the year by Collins Dictionary (described as false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting). Facebook has employed a UK fact-checking service to help it deal with the spread of fake news. Full Fact, a charity founded in 2010, will review stories, images and videos for accuracy, focusing on misinformation that could damage people's health or safety, or undermine democratic processes. If something is fake, it will appear lower in the news feed but will not be deleted. Pray for proven misinformation to be removed completely. Brexit and the 2017 UK general election were both found to be tarnished by fake news. On 11 January Nigeria held a ‘Beyond Fake News’ summit in Abuja to examine ways of combatting fake news ahead of February’s election. See