Table of Contents
Introduction
According to Dictionary.com, 21 June 2019, Article: Social Media, Social Media is “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts.” In this new generation of technology advancement, the internet and social media has greatly influenced us, by changing the way we view and handle news. Social Media platforms makes communication and sharing of information easier. However, this often gets taken advantage of, when people start making use of it’s convenience, to spread fake news. The spreading of fake news has increased past the years, it has now become an issue where people doubt the truthfulness of what is published online.
Social Media
There are different types of social media platforms, like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. These platforms were made for people to share information, news, the latest trends, and many more world affairs to the public. Through social media, many people learnt how to better express themselves, keep up with the latest trends, share their personal life with their followers, it also provides endless entertainment, connecting people with shared beliefs together, thus connecting the world as a whole. Companies also find social media platforms a great help to boost their businesses and sales because of the vast majority of the world having at least one social media account. This shows how greatly Social Media is influencing us.
Fake News
What is Fake News?
According to H. Allcott; M.Gentzkow “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 election”
Fake news “has no basis in fact, but is presented as being factually accurate.”
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“Misinformation — has long been used to shape people’s thoughts and decisions to influence their behavior. Users are likely to share information without fact-checking, especially when it contains controversial or emotionally charged content. The emotional reactions of users contribute to the speed at which information spreads, and the sheer volume of information that people are now subjected to make it very difficult to assess truthfulness.”
Why do people want to spread fake news?
Fake news is successful because people pay attention to it, believe in it, and share about it. In the social media world, people are quick to judge, quick to jump into conclusions, and believe in things that what the majority is believing in, thus most of the time fake news spreads fast because of attention. Sometimes the person sharing a fake news might not even be aware that the news that they are sharing is not true.
This is because our social media accounts mostly consist of followers that share the same values and beliefs as us. Adding on, the information or news that we share online on our personal accounts, would be something that we truly believe in and want others to know about too. Consequently, those who believe in the news or agree with it, will tend to share or repost that particular news on their personal social media, allowing more people to view it and believe in it without checking the accuracy of the post.
How different countries counter this issue
Singapore
Singapore came up with a law in April 2019, stating that those who spread fake news online with the intent to harm public interest could be jailed up to 10 years. Online social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter must also put in actions to prevent the spread of fake news on their websites by displaying corrections along those posts, or remove them. If not, they would be fined.
Adding on, Singapore’s televisions also shows advertisements educating their citizens not to believe in news online so easily, so that they will not be scammed.
Germany
Germany passed a law in January 2018, that social media sites that don’t remove banned sites like false information, or terror-related news from their websites within 24 hours, would face fines up to S$76.2 million.
France
In October 2018, France passed two anti-fake news laws to prevent the spreading of fake news during election campaigns. Firstly, they “enable a candidate or political party to seek a court injunction preventing the publication of “false information” during the three months leading up to a national election.” Secondly, “They also give France’s broadcast authority the power to take any network that is “controlled by, or under the influence of a foreign power” off the air if it deliberately spreads false information.” Published on: 8 April 2019, on The Straits Times, Article: ‘What Countries around the world are doing to tackle fake news and violent content.’
Russia
In March 2019, the Russian president signed a law, fining Russians that spread what the higher ups classify as fake news. The authorities can block websites that do not remove misleading information, and individuals can be fined up to S$8,302 for circulation of false information online, according to, Published on: 8 April 2019, on The Straits Times, Article: ‘What Countries around the world are doing to tackle fake news and violent content.’
Conclusion
In conclusion, spreading of fake news on social media is a social issue, because almost everyone will come across it. So, it affects a large majority of the world into doubting the accuracy of anything online now. This will defeat the purpose of social media, a platform that is designed and made, to ease communication between people around the world and making the spread of news, trends, and information easier, because people take advantage of the convenience and efficiency of social media platforms to spread false information. Therefore, this issue should not be ignored, instead should be corrected. Users should be educated to check facts before easily believing in major news published online.
References
- Definition of Social Media: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/social-media
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3258350
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
- https://lrfi.nus.edu.sg/facts-on-the-table/fake-news-and-social-media/
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3258350
- Definition of Fake News: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news
- https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/insights/blogs/criminal-law-blog/the-impact-of-fake-news-society
- How different countries tackle fake news: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/what-countries-around-the-world-are-doing-to-tackle-fake-news-and-violent-content
