Fake News and the Challenges It Creates

FAKE NEWS AND THE CHALLENGES IT CREATES
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Fake news is misleading information. These stories or articles are fabricated and have no verifiable sources or facts. Indeed, fake news is sometimes called propaganda since the stories are intentionally created to mislead readers as they appear legitimate. Although the Internet has become an incredible source of information, not every news shared is trustworthy. The most significant problem is that fake news is disguised to appear as credible information, but it is not. Fake news might emanate from various sources including social media platforms, websites, and other web sources. In particular, it might lead to misinformation or disinformation. Misinformation entails misleading information that is created and distributed without the deliberate intention to harm. In contrast, disinformation refers to false information that is introduced and shared so that it can deliberately harm others. For example, fake news might be spread in the form of ads from certain political groups and organizations so that they can appear legitimate to be convincing to the target population. In some cases, cybercriminals create fake social media webpages that are associated with renowned companies or brands so that they can spread fake news faster. The paper focuses on what is fake news, the challenges created by it, and how the audiences, media, and governments address these challenges.
Fake news is information that is spread to intentionally mislead people. Notably, it might be viral posts shared from fictitious accounts that are made to appear like actual news reports (Tandoc, Lim, & Ling, 2017, p. 2). The primary motivations behind the production and sharing of fake news are personal, political, ideological, and financial. Some individuals create and distribute fake news to tarnish the political reputation of their rivals when elections are around the corner. For instance, on 4th December 2016, a 28-year-old man from North Carolina, Edgar Welch, entered a pizza restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, in Washington, DC, carrying an assault rifle. The individual said that he was investigating whether Comet Ping Pong which was allegedly operated by Hillary Clinton, then the presidential candidate of the United States of America (USA), and John Podesta, the chief campaign manager, was involved in child sex (Tandoc, Lim, & Ling, 2017, p. 1). After a proper investigation of what led the man to storm the restaurant with an assault rifle, it was found out that he had read blogs on social media that spread the fake news that Comet Ping Pong might have an underground wing that deals with child sex. The individual fired shots into the restaurant, but luckily he did not injure anyone. Another fake news spread information on social media that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate. As such, it can be seen that fake news is intentionally spread to mislead people so that they can engage in specific actions based on false information.
Paul Mihailidis and Samantha Viotty define fake news as hoax-based stories that spread rumors, misinformation, and hearsay (Mihailidis & Viotty, 2017). Indeed, fake news is designed with provocative headlines so that many individuals can read such articles when they come across them on social media. The eye-catching headlines make many people to be tempted to click the link so that they can read. Once some individuals read the shocking or outrageous information contained in fake news, they share it with their friends using various platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Snapchat. Fake news is spread faster within a short period since the Internet allows people to share information within seconds. The climax of the fake news proliferation was witnessed in the USA’s 2016 presidential election. Apart from the case of a man who walked into the Comet Ping Pong restaurant with the intention of saving children who were allegedly harbored underground for sexual purposes, there were other numerous instances of misinformation that mislead Americans. For instance, Pizzagate rumors said that hackers had obtained thousands of emails that were circulated by Democratic Party members. Instead of these news stories indicating what was contained in those emails, people started giving their insights on the Reddit platform. Rumors were spread, which gained considerable traction since more citizens were persuaded by the propaganda. The #pizzagate hashtag that started on Reddit spread to other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (Mihailidis & Viotty, 2017). That is how the political reputation of Hillary Clinton was damaged by her opponents to the point that Americans perceived the candidate to be unfit for the presidential seat. Many people that might have voted for her changed their decision based on fake news that was spread intentionally to undermine her capabilities of being the president of the USA.
Fake news creates numerous challenges. Notably, the news or information is intentionally created to manipulate individuals’ perceptions of reality. As discussed above, during the 2016 presidential campaigns, fake news significantly influenced the outcome of elections since false information was spread to tarnish the political reputation of specific politicians, such as Hillary Clinton. On that note, fake news creates the challenge of differentiating what is true from false. Imagine coming across this headline, “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide.” Many people who would have seen an article with such a title during the 2016 presidential campaigns would have clicked on it (Carlson, 2020). In other words, articles can be created to spread bits of false information about people, products, organizations, and politicians. Since fake news appears to be legitimate sources, the majority of individuals who come across them do not doubt its credibility. They believe in this fabricated news and even act based on the information distributed on social media. As such, the primary challenge created by fake news is that people tend to respond to this false information without asking themselves about the legitimacy of these sources. Fake news creates confusion since readers cannot tell what is true or false. Currently, many individuals do not know the distinction between false and true information sources. They read and believe almost everything they come across on the web.
Another challenge caused by fake news is intensifying social conflicts that undermine individuals’ faith in specific democratic processes or individuals’ capabilities. Fake news is biased and spread false information convincingly. In some cases, it entails initiating controversial topics, such as hacking of Hillary Clinton’s or Democratic Party members’ emails. That way, many people start speculating on the content or conversations in those emails. Once such things gain traction and individuals begin discussing them, things take a different direction that cannot be controlled. People are misinformed in a way that they think to be in control of situations, but they are not. The information fabrication is done in a way that resonates with issues that the public is facing so that readers can relate to certain topics (Mourao & Robertson, 2019). A good example entails how Hillary’s political reputation was tarnished on social media through misinformation. Despite the candidate being the most popular, she did not win the presidential election. Although fake news is not the primary reason that contributed to her downfall, it is among the significant factor that changed individuals’ perceptions or decisions to vote for her. Fake news is designed to make people believe without asking questions that doubt the legitimacy of the source. Once the information goes viral on social media, mainstream media start discussing it to determine whether it’s true or false. Besides, when fake news is shared on the Internet, the information reaches many people within a short period, making them react without the need to determine the legitimacy of the source.
Fake news is meant to distract individuals from vital issues so that they can remain unresolved. Politicians and organizations use this tactic to make people forget about the challenges they are facing without implementing proper solutions. For example, instead of Americans discussing pressing issues, such as racism and immigration policies, during the 2016 presidential elections, they began looking deeper into fake news that spread misinformation about Hillary Clinton. Americans failed to focus on the bigger picture of how the president they wanted to elect would accomplish various things. The more fake news was discussed, the more these individuals hated Hillary. The data from social media platforms, such as Facebook, showed that the for-profit articles spreading false news were shared by many people (Guess, Nyhan, & Reifler, 2018). That signific...