Fake news is a type of journalism or propaganda that is created to influence one’s political views. It is often presented as real news and broadcasted through the internet or social networking cites. The issue of fake news has been heightened within society since the rise of technological advantages, such as the Internet and social networking services. One particular fake news publication, The Washington Post’s Craig Timberg, created controversy in the 2016 presidential election claiming that Donald Trump received numerous support from Russian propaganda, which may have misled voters and in result, punished Democrat Hillary Clinton. Though this and other stories constructs the concern of fake news in political elections, to completely censor it on social networking services in regard to political elections would be to contradict their creations, restrict internet users of their freedom of speech, and may indirectly eradicate one political party or the another. In efforts to show the lack of harm fake news poses in politics on social networks, I will respond to some criticisms of fake news and show weaknesses in arguments that claims fake news is harmful. I will explain the importance of freedom of speech and use it to show moral reason to not regulate fake news.
Wikipedia defines social networking services as, “Online platforms people use to build social networks or relationships with people who they share similar personal or career interests, backgrounds, real-life
(2) A network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts. (3) An online community of people with a common interest who use a website or other technologies to communicate with each other and share information or resources. Social Network sites is defined as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with who they share a connections, and (3) view and navigate their list of connections and those made by others within the system. These social network sites are named as such but not limited to: Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and
“Fake news,” like Pravda during Soviet Russia times, was used in the election to deliberately sway the political views of the voters and increase the support of one party’s side. During the election, “phony articles concerning candidates…emerged…this fake news boosted the image of…Donald Trump…” (“Fake News”). "Phony articles” or “fake news” on social media affected the candidates’ images, thus making voters more likely to vote for one candidate over the other. “Fake news” can be dangerous in spreading unreliable information and planting false accusations about a candidate in the minds of the voters. In 2016, a fake news story was leaked about Hillary Clinton that led to a shooting in a pizzeria,“Incidents such as this demonstrate how potentially dangerous fake news can be and how difficult it is to distinguish…”(“Fake News”). “Fake news” can cause people to abandon their initial beliefs about a person, like a political candidate, and align with the opposing side, destroying a person’s career over counterfeit media. "Fake news” is propaganda used to change people’s way of thinking, like both Pravda and Squealer’s role on The Farm. All of these methods of propaganda were substantial resources in changing people’s minds and feeding thoughts into their minds. They can be dangerous if they are not identified as being false or exaggerated, and can
The purpose of this article, called “Technology is The Cause of ‘Fake News’ – But It’s The Solution Too” written by Seth Freeman, was written to educate the public on how fake news is getting spread. Freeman focuses his main attention on the people that were behind screens and that were quiet and virtually invisible. Throughout Freeman’s piece of writing he uses several examples for his method. One example, Freeman refers to a former Soviet state of Georgia and from Macedonia, where Freeman states that a teenagers discovered that they could make a lot of money by publicizing nonsense information, which could not be found anywhere else, in favor of one candidate. He also states that in Bloomberg, hackers were able to skew interests in and support
Thesis: Dissemination of news through social media allows for rapid distribution and incredible accessibility, but can lead to decreased understanding, stifled discussion, and even the propagation of fake news stories.
Social media has given the human race an unprecedented amount of access to news and information. However, the validity and vetting of this information is often questionable at best. The emergence of websites such as Breitbart, Occupy Democrats, and TheBlaze have given way to a constant stream of partisan
A study conducted in 2013 by Pew Research found out that 72 percent of Americans get their news from a mobile device. This created a major concern with the credibility of the news that Americans read due to the fact that there are many websites that post news satire. News satire is a false accusation made to scheme the audience into believing some type of hoax. These stories generate major problems for those who are political figures, threatening their legitimacy and even harming their reputations. Every single day people are exposed to fake news, whether that be on Facebook, Twitter, or directly on news sites and “According to Pew Research, 66 percent of Facebook users said they get news from the site” (“Probe Reveals Stunning”…). These false
The definition of social media Wigmore provided is that the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. (2014) Social networks have evolved into online communities. They can be based around all sorts of thing like friendship or common interests, which allows file sharing, blogging and often-incorporate content from all sorts of other
Watt states that today’s society, “the spread of fake news poses a health risk to Western democracies” (Watts). Watts compared consuming junk news, too much like eating junk food that it feels good when it is eaten (Watts). He says what if “you only craved cookies and stopped eating nutritious foods. A quick glance at the “Nutrition Facts” on your favorite cookie’s wrapper explained your weight gain” (Watts). Watts explains that the cookie addiction created a health risk, and that if “you wanted to lower your health risk, you could do it by eating fewer cookies and treating your addiction” (Watts). Social media platforms act almost the same way by feeding news addictions through curated streams that match certain preferences (Watts). Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus and many others were social platforms were designed to share content between friends and increase engagement with that content through discussion (Watts). Those sites help play to the different biases and preferences of the reader, further more confirming their viewpoints thus reinforcing their comfortable political positions by feeding news addictions through streams that match the reader’s
We have never heard about fake news in the 19th century, but a lot of misleading information topped the headlines of the international news in 2016. This fake news reached the top with the Facebook platform accusing Donald Trump of reaching out to the White House and its contribution to increasing the popularity of the Republican candidate by supporting false ideas on the site and not responding. Clearly, fake news could affect our lives in negative ways to affect our believes.
In the midst of the president election an issue rose that has been overlooked by most in the United States over the last few years. Fake news, false information that pretends to be real and is deliberately published in order to misinform the audience. They aim to mislead the audience in order to get some kind of political or financial gain. Something that for some people might feel like a new issue, has been a big problem all over the world, and as the problem is finally starting to come up to light here in the United States, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to solve it. There are many places where fake news are spread to readers, but some of the most used ones are social media websites in general. Places like Facebook, Twitter,
In 2017, we can presume fake news is all around us. The concept of fake news sprung up during the 2016 presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. With the election being so controversial and a topic of interest, companies began generating stories that were untrue with the hope of it bringing a like or click to their Facebook or Twitter page. Even television news has been cited as containing fake news. A more recent example being that of Trump and Fox News, where he quoted a false claim from a report that was allowed to air on the network. This brings us to the question, what definition can best describe fake news?
The recent surge in popularity of social media comes with a price: fake news. Fake news is defined as news or media that has been altered or modified. Journalists have begun to analyze why that fake news exists and why it continues exist. Two authors, Eoin O’Carroll and Kevin D. Williamson, both have written articles about fake news. Eoin O’Carroll’s article “How Information Overload Helps Spread Fake News,” discusses how the media has bombarded us with news stories, blurring the distinct lines between real and fake news. Kevin D. Williamson, a journalist for the National Review, writes in his article “‘Fake News, Media and Voters: Shared Reality Must Be Acknowledged” that the news is not fake; it just does not align with one’s personal beliefs. Both authors successfully appeal to their audiences’ emotions and feelings, but O’Carroll is more likely to succeed than Williamson in persuading his audience to try and combat fake news because the writer presents himself as someone the intended readers will more readily identify with and offers evidence that his readers will find more compelling.
Social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and many more are well used nowadays. I have found most of the news which is known to be fake are spreading hugely in social media. Recently the news was so much viral in the social media. The news was about a “Muslim migrant” who was accused of beating up a boy on crutches. This video was so much viral in the social media and the highlighted thing is the boy was claimed to be immigrant. This news was published in Netherlands where there was a big controversy in many parts of the world. But later the news was found to be fake and not convincing. Even the news broadcaster and the video poster were found to be fake for this news. The most surprising thing was that the president of United States “Donald Trump” has shared this news on a social media without knowing the point. It’s totally shocking that the person which is well reputed and known has shared the fake news without finding the truth. Because of these kinds of a crucial mistake made by such person has affected the society and the people. He mainly accused the boy as an immigrant which was totally false and unexpected. Even most of the people trust this fake news with only with the title which can bring unwanted accident. So, we can say that the people should be concerned about the news and the reality. We should have to point out whether it's fake or not instead of blaming or degrading others without real and truthful news.
Out of the variety of news sources such as TV, radio, or newspapers, one of the popular sources in today’s world is social media. People are getting addicted to and can’t live without social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. They use social media as of where they can post their status but also where they can receive a lot of different news. While social media are spreading any kinds of news such as trend, celebrity or even politics, people easily get the information that is not true called “fake news.” The fake news raises the major problem in social media as the news source. Once people see the news, they tend to believe and share it. Liking can spread out fake news in a second. When people like the news, the activity
As the world evolves and changes due to the explosion of technology, so does mankind's ways of intellectual comprehension of informative news. The present day of news has overemphasized the meaning of fake news; which represents any form of false information that is illustrated as factual news. That tends to spread throughout the internet and the media. Misinformed news has taken over the world in so many ways, such as the birth of satirical and sketchy news, the financial motivation to publish actual false news, and difficult to sustain news.