Eadie Melloy

Will the spreading of ‘Fake News’ on the social media platform of Facebook have ethical implications in the future?

Have you ever been a target of Fake News? Use of the term ‘Fake News’, has been on the rise since coming to the forefront of the US election in 2016.  Fake news can be described as false stories that are spread within online media, whilst maintaining the appearance of being news. It was particularly prominent on social media platforms such as Facebook, during the 2016 campaign between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. This arguably had an impact on the views of the public as misinformation spread across Facebook. It necessary to ask, what are the ethical implications of this? and what is being done, or more likely, what can be done to reduce fake content?

US 2016 election – What happened?

During the election, there were several Fake News stories circulating on Facebook, predominantly used to target voters. Major Fake News headlines included ‘Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump’ and ‘Hilary Clinton approved weapon sales to Islamic Jihadists including ISIS’, all of which sparked controversy and were completely untrue.

An academic study done by researchers at Princeton, University of Exeter and Dartmouth, estimated during a six-week period within the election, 25% of Americans visited fake news websites. In addition to this, according to Buzzfeed analysis, 20 of the top fake news stories gained 8.7 million engagements, compared to 20 of the top real news stories, which had 7.3 million engagements, demonstrating increased traction for those articles that were untrue. This shows the projection of Fake news onto the public at a time of political ‘buzz’.

Another issue of Fake News was, Donald Trump’s accusations towards fake news were seen as strategic. As the New York Times suggests, these claims were ‘pitting the press against the public’ further blurring the line between true and fake news. Many people saw Trump’s appropriation of Fake news, as a means to discredit unfavourable reporting on his campaign. To add to this, polls demonstrated that some Americans see Trump as more truthful than new media, which created more problems when the election was going on as there was more potential for confused voters to be influenced.

Did fake news really change people’s mind?

It is difficult to say exactly the level of impact on the US public. Certainly, it has increased the level of distrust in news outlets and the public’s beliefs in journalism. This also increased the distrust towards Facebook and other media platforms. But in terms of swaying public voters, the circulation of these Fake News stories, has been seen as a mode of public discourse. The sharing of Fake News, could have had an arguably large influence on political preference, particularly low-information votes. Post the 2016 election, studies have shown that two in three adults believe that fake news has caused them confusion about political facts and issues, potentially having an impact on who they voted for.

So, what is being done?

It is really important to recognise that the spreading of Fake News on Facebook has major ethical implications, as it deceives the public, potentially swaying their political opinion. Since the 2016 election in America, several ethical guidelines are being used to decrease the number of circulating Fake News stories, particularly as the campaigning for the 2020 election begins.

The U.S Supreme Court stated, following the 2016 US election, that it is only in the most extraordinary cases whereby ‘actual malice’ occurs and the information impacts National Security. The threshold is high, and therefore we must turn to other means of guidance when approaching reporting to decrease Fake News circulation. The US Society of Professional Journalists provides a ‘Code of Ethics’ (https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf), which focuses on ‘Seeking Truth and Reporting it’. This means accuracy is a necessity when reporting, so it is important to get the facts right and in addition to this, not deliberately distorting facts when writing. The US Press Association’s, ‘Journalist Code of Ethics’, similarly suggests the need to test the accuracy of sources and exercising care to avoid errors.

Similarly, in Australia, we have several guidelines, which can be applied to Fake News. The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s ‘Codes of Practice’, again focuses on fact checking. Again, the MEAA ‘Code of Ethics’ emphasises the importance of accuracy, disclosure, and doing the best you can to correct any errors.  

An interesting development since 2016, is the global need to resolve the issue of Fake News. The United Nations has published a handbook for Journalism Education and Training labelled ‘Journalism, ‘Fake News’ & Disinformation’. This offers an active learning manual on ways to combat disinformation through Media and Information Literacy, fact checking and social media verification. It emphasises the role journalists have in combatting Fake News on social media outlets.

Facebook has also taken active steps since the 2016 election in an attempt to better identify false news. This is done through the third-party checking organisations, which detect fraud and fake accounts which makes spam and ultimately Fake News harder to be circulated. They have had particular focus on periods of foreign influence campaigns and worked closer with government to prevent misinformation as well as ‘report post’ buttons for the public. In between August and October last year, 652 pages, groups and accounts were removed, due to efforts to stop the spread of disinformation to interfere with voting, demonstrating the impact this is having.

Our Responsibility

It is necessary to recognise, whether you are a journalist or a member of the public, that there is an importance to be critical of news articles, and in the case of journalists, be critical of your own work. Researching, fact-checking and using credible news sources can also limit its reach to potential voters. Hopefully in the future, more people regard the ethical implications of Fake News, and its impact during political campaigning will decline.

-Eadie

Further Reading

The (almost) complete history of ‘fake news’ – https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320

TWEET THE PRESS: “FAKE NEWS” AS A REPUTATION-MANAGEMENT
DEVICE IN PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TWEETS – https://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=135747973&S=R&D=ufh&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLE4y9f3OLCmr1GeqK9Ss624Sa6WxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGot02vrrJRuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA

Selective Exposure to Misinformation: Evidence from the consumption of fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign – http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/fake-news-2016.pdf

This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook – https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook#.emA15rzd0

The Danger of Fake News to Our Election – https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/danger-election

A Badge of Honor? https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/1461670X.2017.1375385?needAccess=true

The small, disloyal fake news audience: The role of audience availability in fake news consumption – https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/1461444818758715

Facebook blocks fake accounts but election battle goes on – https://www.apnews.com/cef6deffd9a743cca013f1b6601f1aa4

Header image – https://purposelyawakened.com/engaging-2016-presidential-election/