THE subjects of the reported resignation this week on social media of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro from the Cabinet of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., while laughed off by both, is no laughing matter really.
We cannot understand how those who originated the report have been so reckless to go online without checking the tittle-tattle when it could have been easy to check with Malacanang or the Department of National Defense.
Obviously, it was never their goal to have the facts verified – because checking something that was never a fact would mean delay in getting ahead of others in this age of mis- and dis-information.
Whoever these people are, if they have respect for their manners, they displayed the abominable height of indiscretion and disrespect.
They took into consideration only that they would have hoarded more likes, more views, more shares and whatever, providing, their despicable speed notwithstanding, their reports would immediately become a trending topic.
And questions arise: When should we publish stories about mis- and dis-information?
How much traffic should a piece of mis- and dis-information have before we address it? What is the “tipping point,” and how do we measure it?
Example, on one social media platform, do we check whether a hashtag made it to a country’s top 10 trending topics?
How do we think about the impact of mis- and dis-information, on social media platforms?
Do we care about how many people see the content? Or do we care about who sees the content?
Is the platform used important by virtue of the number of people who use it, or is it important because certain groups, like news organizations and politicians, use it?
The President, who was preparing for his milestone celebration, replied to legitimate media, literally laughing off the rumors, saying “That’s fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake news.”
He said he and Teodoro, whom he appointed to the post to succeed him on June 5 last year, laughed over the rumors during a phone conversation earlier.
The President dismissed the rumor and emphasized that any changes in the Cabinet would be announced by Malacanang.
Which brings us to an important element in reporting, conveniently overlooked today in the 24/7 news cycle where the emphasis is on speed and volume with the convenience of the internet.
And the social media platforms that give these irresponsible so-called news carriers are not to be excused – ignoring in the process the reliability of the promulgated information.
Which points to one extremely bright bad and harmful motive by some people, correctly underlined by Malacanang and the DND, to sow chaos in government.
The DND itself called on the public to “be vigilant against misleading claims that aim to sow discord among the Filipino people.”
Some must have earned points and pesos in the process, but some posthaste be damned for splashing flagrant malfeasance in an otherwise noble calling of circulating information not dubious but easily verifiable.
