Don’t fake the news
Ever since Donald Trump became US president, it’s been my habit to do constant Google checks for any wayward sparks the gentleman may care to generate in the waking hours of his day. And he has been most obliging. Just hours ago, The Guardian online reported that Trump had tweeted “misleading photos” to suggest that his proposed 2,000-mile “wall” with Mexico was underway. How? Well, the guy simply tweeted images of work being done on a 2-mile stretch of barrier last month BEFORE Congress refused to fully fund the wall’s construction. In fact, Congress had since agreed to allot only US$1.6 billion for a project estimated to cost over $20 billion. In short, Trump was using images of work done on a 2-mile stretch to create the illusion of work done on a 2,000-mile stretch. (“Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!” gushed the man)
In a week where fake news was very much in the news, Trump’s action showed that it is not just the media or ordinary netizens who are capable of faking the news. If it suits their purpose, governments and leaders are equally adept at online fabrications. Academic Dr Norman Vasu said at the public hearings of the Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods that there are six categories of online falsehoods based on the degree of threat they pose, with disinformation aimed at undermining society topping the list. Under this categorisation, Trump’s misleading photos on the Great Wall of Mexico would probably rank somewhere near the bottom. But a fake is a fake, so shouldn’t Americans ask the president to take down the phony photos? Or must it really be sufficiently serious? If so, who decides how serious? If it’s the government, then who will order a take-down if the government is behind the fake news (as in Trump’s case)?
Fake news is a by-product of Internet technology. In the pre-Internet age, we only have to contend with rumours, spread by word of mouth, not click of mouse. Hence the attendant issues we now face have no precedent or proven solutions. But one thing remains the same. As in the past, the role of the government is a bone of contention. Activists claim we don’t need new laws as there are enough existing ones to deal with online falsehoods. What is needed is greater public access to information and improved media literacy. Not so, says the government as it pointed to a poll last year indicating that over 90% of Singaporeans supported stronger laws to remove or correct fake news. Whatever it may be, there’s no faking that we are all in new territory and it’ll take us a while to get it right.