editor’s note
ROB ROSE: We can’t ban fake news
The manner in which ‘fake news’ is bandied about to discredit facts that individuals simply don’t like makes it harder to wage the real war for truth
There’s a cartoon of US President Donald Trump that illustrates how the notion of "fake news" has become a lifesaver for the more craven elements of society. It shows Trump standing on a bathroom scale and, evidently displeased with the numbers, yelling: "Fake news." This tactic, of bleating that any fact you disagree with is "fake news", is used often by such savoury characters as the Gupta family and Trump. That’s some company. Only, their sloppy blurring of the term makes it so much harder to wage a real war on fake news, in which websites like iMzansi lure readers with intentionally false stories. This is done either to score advertising rand based on the readers they get, or as blatant propaganda to influence social discourse.Of the first sort, locally we’ve seen (false) stories of four foreigners burned alive after their babies were ripped from their wombs, and, overseas, of Pope Francis endorsing Trump for president. Of the second variety, social media accounts were set up to...
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