Why fake news is so dangerous

As the country battles the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, fake news is not only persisting but seemingly increasing.

And to be clear, that outraged statement you forwarded to your friends via WhatsApp without confirming it? Fake news.

That video of violence that you did not confirm the context of? Fake news.

The YouTube video that blames 5G for the coronavirus pandemic and says government is trying to control you through 666 microchips in vaccines? Fake news.

You might think there is not that much harm in sharing a sensational morsel of info – if it turns out to be untrue people will realise it for themselves, right?

But fake news is dangerous and undermines more than just traditional journalism – it undermines truth-seeking and quite frankly, your own intelligence.

As we started 2021, South Africans happily shared fake news about Ministers Bheki Cele and Thulas Nxesi and were happy to
ignore the facts to make it look like they were acting irresponsibly in the middle of a pandemic.

Fake news spreads like wildfire because it’s outrageous, juicy, breaks from the norm – and that should be your first clue that
something is probably fake news.

Fake news distorts, it deceives, it promotes half-trust and information that is either unverified, out of context, or just untrue.

In his TEDx talk on How Fake News Grows in a Post-Fact World, Ali Velshi, who has worked for MSNBC, Al Jazeera America, and CNN – explains fake news firstly undermines actual journalism, where the task of the media is to hold the powerful to account and to bear witness to history.

Fake news is an attack on tradition journalism, which Velshi says “it is under attack because it doesn’t do everything you want it
to do, but it’s still there and you should actually rely on it”.

“I’m not saying you have to trust everything that mainstream media tells you, but I would give it more weight that an unverified
source,” he says.

Velshi says people spread fake news either because it validates their beliefs, or because they don’t know any better – linking with my sentiment that it undermines your own intelligence.

But more than that: his note about our beliefs should sound a warning.

We all like to hear things that resonate with us, that fit in with our view of the world. It’s not nice to be proved wrong, or prejudiced, or privileged, but sometimes we are all those things.

And because of that, we put forward a specific set of information that is not the whole picture.

It reminds me of novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s warning about “The Danger of a Single Story” – a narrative that only puts forward one part of a much bigger picture.

She says the danger of a single story is that it creates a stereotype and the danger of a stereo type is not that it is not true but
that it is not the whole story.

More than that, she points out that a single story – be it of a people, a government, or a pandemic – strips people of dignity.

The truth, more often than not, is complicated, as is the Covid-19 pandemic and as is government’s response to it.

So stop simplifying it through fake news and stop being part of the problem. Velshi points out: “Fake news purveyors count on the fact that you are abjectly lazy”, so don’t let them win.

Do the legwork and ask the basic questions: says who? How do you know this is true?

Also, stop spreading fake news – when a friend sends you something that seems too good to be true, ask them about it and whether they confirmed it themselves.

Velshi also says: “If you wish to avoid the purveyors of fake news who live in dark alleys, stay out of the dark alleys.”

So support traditional, credible media houses and check your facts with reputable sources.

Get more than one source for every shocking fact. And use your common sense, please?

– news@citizen.co.za

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