The free flow of information in this generation has made people’s lives easier. Now we can have instant knowledge of almost anything we want to know about any particular topic—from proceedings in congressional hearings to the operating hours of a store we wish to visit. We can reach out to friends or relatives anywhere in the world, whereas before we had to wait for their letters for weeks or pay a fortune just to hear their voice.
But like many other things that start out as good intentions, today’s easy exchange brings with it pitfalls.
Fake news—disinformation—easily comes to mind.
It’s something we are all too familiar with here in the Philippines, given many social media users’ propensity to share away story links. Sometimes they genuinely believe they are doing good by providing information to their circle of friends. Alas, they do not bother to check whether the sources are legitimate, whether the story serves a more sinister purpose, whether it is not from a few years ago, or whether the situation is even plausible at all.
And then of course, there are those who deliberately sow confusion or feed erroneous information to others for their own ends.
It’s only a small comfort that the problem is not unique to Internet users in the Philippines.
To help address this, social media company Facebook has partnered with the International Fact-Checking Network to check the accuracy of news stories shared in the Facebook platform. Two Philippine news organizations, Rappler and Vera Files, have been certified by the network.
It’s tough work, really, not being able to take everything that appears on the news as fact. The essence of news, after all, is its truth, such that fake news is deemed an oxymoron by many.
But these are the times in which we live right now and these irresponsible information consumption habits have already been formed.
Fact-checking initiatives are always commendable, if the credibility of the organizations undertaking them is not assailed by those they are trying to check in the first place. Still, before we rely on the efforts of fact-checkers, people need to change how they accept what presents itself as news.
It’s a sad turn of event, but every reader, viewer, listener or social media user of any age must adapt a critical mindset. Not everything presented to them is accurate, and they must accept information only from trusted sources. These are dangerous times—especially when some government officials themselves are the source of misleading information.