As the coronavirus spreads, so information and disinformation about its causes, casualties and prognosis have spread with it. One epidemiologist has suggested fake news about the virus is just as contagious as the virus itself. Although false or misinformation has been with us for centuries, it was only in the last decade that the term ‘fake news’ was coined. I recently heard from journalist and founding editor of BuzzFeed Canada, Craig Silverman, who was one of the first to use and study the phenomenon. On a visit to Amsterdam, he discussed the role of disinformation in this age of social media and how it affects our daily lives.
Do we live in a post-truth world? This question is frequently raised. Yet, as writer, Steven Poole points out, there never has been ‘a golden age of transparency’. Fake news and scientific misinformation were serious problems for Renaissance thinkers, along with our tendency toward confirmation bias. This may well be true but Craig Silverman’s account of the growth of the phenomenon on social media, highlight the importance of context. Silverman begins his story in the small Macedonian town of Veles in 2014. With the closure of a factory, the town’s largest employer, many local residents found themselves out of work. However, a group of young, tech savvy locals began to cash in on the money that could be made from creating fake websites that ran fake news. In this case, they created over a hundred pro-Trump websites in the run-up to the 2016 US elections.
A digital gold rush.
Designed to engage Trump supporters and ultimately generate revenue via Facebook and Google AdSense, Silverman describes the phenomenon as ‘a digital gold rush’. His 2016 article ‘How teens in the Balkans are duping Trump supporters with fake news’, was one of the first instances in which the term, ‘fake news’ was used. His investigation of the phenomenon highlighted the economic incentives associated with the production of fake news. Consumers in the US are worth about four times as much as a user outside the country according to Facebook’s earnings reports. The young Macedonians who ran these sites told Silverman that they didn’t care about Trump but were simply interested in click rates which ultimately lead to cash.
This was an early example of what Silverman terms ‘the business model around manipulation’. Similar trends continue today. For example; the global trade in Amazon 4 and 5 star reviews. Or the renting out of one’s Facebook account for around 15$ a month to run advertisements. In 2014 Silverman founded Emergent.Info, a web-based tool that tracks social share patterns over time and is thus able to verify or debunk rumors and conspiracies online. He tells us that he found a certain type of website never seen before. They initially looked normal but were in fact 100% false.
He shows us the example of one such website, called National Report. Sites such as these not only have fake content but also fake journalists, fake reader comments and even false ‘corrections’ from those apparently involved in the incidents reported. ‘These sites were getting hundreds of thousands of hits’ he tells us. He mentions another example from Canada where two youths created a website that consistently earned thousands of dollars a month by making up fake stories about Canadian Prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
‘Authoritarian regimes have weaponized fake news’ – Craig Silverman
Silverman goes on to explain how US President, Donald Trump, then ‘took ownership of the term’, using it to deflect criticism and questions from the press. He also mentions the renting out of individual’s accounts in the Ukraine by Putin’s Russian government, in order to manipulate the Ukrainian elections. Indeed the journalist suggests that fake news has been ‘weaponised’ by authoritarian regimes who have used it not only to criminalize dissent but also to protect and promote their own power base.
A recent article in the Conversation explores how the Chinese authorities are using social media to ‘manage information’ about the coronavirus and its spread. The ’50-cent army’ and volunteer ‘truth ambassadors’ have been mobilised in their rumour-busting efforts. Tencent has taken responsibility for providing ‘transparent’ communication on the virus. The government has told people to only post and forward information from official channels and warned of severe consequences for anyone found guilty of disseminating “rumours”. These include permanently blocking WeChat groups, blocking social media accounts, and possible jail terms.
Error has always been a part of journalism, indeed of all things human. But, as Silverman explains, traditionally, the press has remedied this by acknowledging errors made. Such an approach ensured accuracy and generated that all important ingredient: trust. The Canadian journalist spent ten years running a website called, Regret the Error which focused on mistakes made by journalists. During this time he noticed the seismic shift that occurred with the advent of social media. ’This was a ten year journey that really began to change when social media became such a big force’, he explains. Errors could no longer be corrected by news producers nor could the veracity of facts be checked before they were made available for public consumption. ‘All sorts of erroneous stuff is already out there and getting lots of attention on social media’. How then does one sort the real from the fake, the trusted from the untrusted?
What does healthy skepticism look like?
Clearly the virtual world has created opportunities hitherto unknown for both good and ill. The incredible reach of social media means that almost everyone can now participate. The question is how best to manage this massive shift without sacrificing freedom or trust. Silverman argues that transparency and open discussion are essential. The Canadian journalist invites everyone to think about what ‘healthy skepticism looks like’. He predicts a rise in what he terms ‘borderline misinformation’ in the future. But he still believes the internet can be a force for good in spite of its growing complexity. ‘Don’t be afraid of complexity!’ he urges. In a world of information disorder we don’t, it seems, have much choice.