Is fake news really a threat to society? Isn’t it just badly-doctored videos that are shared for fun, like memes? Isn’t fake news just a buzzword, or an insult when you don’t like a particular story? Don’t we know fake news comes from the same sources, so it’s easy to recognize?
Not necessarily, which is what our recently published report on the “The State of Misinformation 2021” reveals. According to the report, which surveyed 2000 people in both the US and Europe on their views around misinformation online, fake news is a lot more deceptive than we may think ” and a lot more of a threat than we realize.
Defining Fake News
It seems that people throw around the term fake news today at will, but what actually is it? According to The Columbia Journalism Review, there are six types of fake news. Manipulated content, which is what US respondents believed they saw the most, is doctored photos or videos that create a fake scenario but are shared as reality. Fake information, which is what European respondents believed they saw the most, is simply graphics or posts with wrong information, but that tend to be shared without being checked. Authentic material used in the wrong context, which both respondents saw the second most frequently, are images and videos taken from another event, like an arrest or a rally, and captioned as if they’re from something recent, misleading the viewer. Other forms of fake news are imposter news sites that pretend to be real sites, actual fake news sites, and parody content.
This means that fake news isn’t just one type of content coming from one source, but are different types of manipulated media, which are often visually sensational to catch unsuspecting eyes, that present a created reality. Viewers then see that fake reality and share it, perpetuating the easy virality of fake news.
The problem is that people think they’ll be able to recognize it when it appears on their screen. But the report found that while 93% of the respondents were confident that they’d be able to recognize fake news when they saw it, one third of them admitted to sharing misinformation, not knowing it was fake news before they did. This means that the malicious actors creating manipulated content, content out of context, and misinformation are having an easy time of pushing out the lies they want people to believe.
The Threat of Fake News
This easy deception is why the US respondents believe that fake news is more of a threat to society than terrorism, according to the report ” and we can certainly see why. Fake news creates a false reality that not just one or two people buy into, but thousands, and creates a reality that those creating the fake news can manipulate to whatever they want it to be. Those lies, if continued to be perpetrated, can turn deadly or threaten societal stability. The report also shows that US respondents believed fake news to be almost as much of a threat to society as climate change and data theft. It’s such a threat that over half those surveyed in the report want the spreading of fake news to be considered a crime.
While European respondents didn’t see fake news as being as big of a threat to society as climate change, data theft, or terrorism, 60% still believed that fake news influenced the elections in their various countries. A much higher amount of US respondents believed that fake news also impacted general elections, and 70% were convinced fake news influenced the 2020 Presidential Election. Impacted elections means impacted policy and governance that affects the well-being of an entire nation ” and it all starts with lies.
With stakes so high and the threat made clear, how can we even think about solving this problem?
Solving Fake News
The solution to fake news starts, simply, in having more transparency into the author and organization behind a piece of content. In fact, 44% of respondents in the report stated that their trust in a piece of content would increase if they knew who created it and where it’s coming from, and 64% desired a record of how it’s changed over time.
As of right now on the internet ” and as it’s been since the start ” there’s no system in place for transparency and accountability. According to the report, the rise of fake news has indeed prompted some people to start fact-checking what they see, a great practice for becoming a more informed media user. Showing who the piece was written by and what organization it came from can help increase trust as well.
Other ways to increase trust include giving readers access to a version history of the content to show how it’s changed since it was originally created, and having ways to easily find out more about the author. Respondents in the report also felt that search engines could take steps to decrease content without an author or that’s not connected to an organization. It’s not a matter of silencing voices but encouraging more transparency around who those voices are and if what they’re saying is true.
Who’s ultimately responsible for stepping in and solving the problem of fake news? European respondents believed that it should be up to governments and regulators to weed out misinformation and set a precedent for transparency. The solution is two-fold: More demonstrated sourcing and transparency, and more literacy around how to identify fake news in the first place. It’s what can make the leap towards decreasing misinformation and reducing the threat it poses to us all.
