[kictanet] Talk to NCIC Day 1: Users and Fake News

Wed Aug 23 18:36:40 EAT 2017

Thanks Merci for steering this debate! My two cents!

Why is there an increase in the prevalence of Fake News recently?

Bending the truth for political gain is certainly nothing new - it’s
propaganda, and the record of its uses stretch back to ancient times.

Octavian famously used a campaign of disinformation to aid his victory over
Marc Anthony in the final war of the Roman Republic. In its aftermath, he
changed his name to Augustus, and dispatched a flattering and youthful
image of himself throughout the Empire, maintaining its use in his old age.

The rising trend of fake news during 2016 was very different to largely
state controlled analogue modes of 20th-century propaganda. What we saw
often here were small groups of people taking advantage of social media
interaction and algorithms through creating hyperbolic articles around a
major political event: the US Presidential election.

Propaganda and Internet fake news do, however, hold similarities: both are
methods of distorting the truth for emotional persuasion, seeking to drive
action. Although this action appears to be political, the motivation in the
2016 US election was not necessarily. Many creators of it were moreover
looking for a path to quick dollars by distributing content and gaining an
audience that would view advertising.

Before the Internet, publishing fake news and gaining an audience that
could be monetized was nearly impossible for three reasons:

Distribution and cost: Distributing information on any kind of scale needed
a prohibitively expensive logistics operation.

Audiences and trust: Building a large audience took much longer, and
because it was expensive to acquire and built on trust of information,
publishing fake news would be damaging to reputation and thus have economic
consequences.

Law and regulation: Because it was expensive to distribute information,
there were far fewer players. These abided by media law and could be
regulated. Publishing fake news would likely end up with the publisher
being sued.

But this gate of information exchange was unlocked around 2007, with the
beginnings of the social media revolution. The creation of social networks
like Facebook and Twitter allowed people to exchange information on a much
greater scale than ever before, while publishing platforms like WordPress
allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease.

What is the role of different categories of users in combating Fake News?

Governments, as one of the largest users of the internet,  have a role to
play. They can compel providers of social media to take action of fake
news, illegal and misinformation shared in their platforms. In 2016, The
German authorities are targeted Internet giants like Facebook, and plan to
require them to take action against fake news posted on their sites failing
which fines of up to 500,000 euros can be imposed.

In Britain, there is a parliamentary committee looking into the issue. The
Singapore Government announced last month it is studying the matter and
looks likely to introduce new laws. Why are governments stepping in, and
will they succeed?

Is Fake News a manifestation of deeper societal issues and if so, are there
ways of combating it other than resolving the societal issues?

Misinformation can be very difficult to correct and may have lasting
effects even after it is discredited. One reason for this persistence is
the manner in which people make causal inferences based on available
information about a given event or outcome. As a result, false information
may continue to influence beliefs and attitudes even after being debunked
if it is not replaced by an alternate causal explanation. This hypothesis
has been tested using an experimental paradigm adapted from the psychology
literature on the continued influence effect and found that a causal
explanation for an unexplained event is significantly more effective than a
denial even when the denial is backed by unusually strong evidence. This
result has significant implications for how to most effectively counter
misinformation about controversial political events and outcomes. (Nyhan,
Brendan; Reifler, Jason. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2015.
doi: 10.1017/XPS.2014.22)

We have Bloggers who are seen as influencers. Do they have a higher duty
when communicating?

In the delivery of information, bloggers are required to be responsible
morally and ethically. They can become agents of change and bring people to
a better direction. With the ability to filter, search, and retransmit
information with their own characteristics, bloggers have the ability to
translate government language into a language that is easily understood by
the public.

I believe that bloggers have an important role in fighting hoaxes because
usually, the content written in blogs are personal and honest, based on
personal experiences.

Before generating a content, bloggers need to analyze, read a lot of
sources and include the news source. This will make the news traceable to
the truth. Through their blogs, bloggers have a vast opportunity in
offsetting the hoax news.

Best,

Joash Moitui
[image: https://]about.me/jmoitui
<https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/d6e5d3afecd910e747507b2960b557bdf03ff7f2?url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.me%2Fjmoitui%3Fpromo%3Demail_sig%26utm_source%3Dproduct%26utm_medium%3Demail_sig%26utm_campaign%3Dgmail_api&userId=521787&signature=c81611197b773ac2>

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:40 AM, Toilem Godwin via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> *Hi Mercy, thank you for keeping th discusions alive.*
>
> *Kindly see my comments below:*
>
> *(a) Why is there an increase in the prevalence of Fake News recently?*
>
> *"..........................................................................................................."*
>
> *I have been doing a research on why we have an increase in fake news for
> a few days now and what is suprisingly interesting is  the fact that most
> "upcoming"  journalist/bloggers/sociologist if I may put it lightly are
> fighting for recognition.*
> */online space. The concept of social media and sharing has made
> people/bloggers/sociologist/journalists be fast on clicking submit/sharing
> and ignore verifying the info they receive/share. These kinds of
> "joulalists" if i may put it lightly are very fast in to submitting
> unverified news/info for the sake of recognition and receiving receiving
> sociAl recognition as the "origin" fake and legit news. In short they do
> not really care the status of tehe news but to get more "likes/share"*
>
> *"..........................................................................................................."*
>
> *(b) What is the role of different categories of users in combating Fake
> News?*
>
> *".............................................................................................."*
> * IMHO I have three role of user categories.*
> *1. The platform admins: these are admins for different account and mostly
> guys who should control flow of information but due due to many issues
> arising from the restriction of flow of information ( whether verified or
> unverified news) the defaults tend to be " allow all".*
> *2. The posters: These are people who post the news. These are to me
> regarded the most dangerous users and in a way should be restricted or
> Managed by the admins.*
> *3. The consumers*
>
>
> *(c) Have Kenyans given up or are there good practices in combating Fake
> News?*
>
>
>
>
> *"..............................................................................................................................."*
> *Not all Kenyans have. IMHO Most Kenyans are consumers of news compared to
> producers of news. Most Kenyans just react to feeds they receive as
> compared to generating the news. Most Kenyans ( just to be subjective based
> on different feeds) to tend to react but initiate most news.*
>
> *(d) Is Fake News a manifestation of deeper societal issues and if so, are
> there ways of combating it other than resolving the societal issues?*
>
>
> *"......................................................................................................."*
>
>
>
> *IMHO I view most fake news are as a deeper societal issues like where one
> has no idea or prefers airing their views that are not verified but to gain
> a social media status. This is one of the main factors of fake and
> unverified news.Kenyans ar now competing to "summit" but rather verify news
> they are sharing.*
>
> *(e) We have Bloggers who are seen as influencers. Do they have a higher
> duty when communicating?*
>
> On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 at 10:10 kanini mutemi via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Good morning Listers,
>>
>> Let me start of by thanking NCIC for their willingness to engage on this
>> issue. We look forward to a a great discussion and pragmatic proposals.
>>
>> We had a discussion on this during the PRE KIGF ONLINE DISCUSSION DAY 2-
>> FAKE NEWS DURING ELECTIONEERING.
>> <https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/d30ff55f90841e2f1223a9773031f1c49f015149?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F0BxmvjvsBlX3dUmVfS3IyaTdkZ0U%2Fview&userId=521787&signature=f9b8bbc62dfa72b8>
>> I will say at that time, the impact of Fake News was not apparent. Times
>> have since changed as we have now witnessed numerous 'Fake News' posts
>> which go viral within minutes. Following the election results, posts on
>> alleged instances of violence and of government action in parts of the
>> country have dominated social media platforms. On several occasions,
>> government officials, media houses and diligent citizens have come forward
>> to denounce these posts as 'Fake News'. Photos that were first presented as
>> true accounts of the situation on the ground were later discovered to be
>> old photos of past events. At the same time, there have been instances
>> where posts were quickly dismissed as 'Fake News' even when there was
>> evidence later on that they were indeed factual reports. There is therefore
>> a need for us to navigate through this issue carefully.
>>
>> Just for the record, it was agreed previously that the definition we are
>> working with is Fake News refers to disinformation which GG aptly put as: *fabricated
>> news that has no basis in fact, but is presented as being factually
>> accurate. *
>>
>> With this in mind, I invite you to engage on the questions below:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *(a) Why is there an increase in the prevalence of Fake News recently?*
>>
>>
>>
>> *(b) What is the role of different categories of users in combating Fake
>> News?*
>>
>>
>>
>> *(c) Have Kenyans given up or are there good practices in combating Fake
>> News?*
>>
>>
>> *(d) Is Fake News a manifestation of deeper societal issues and if so,
>> are there ways of combating it other than resolving the societal issues?*
>>
>> *(e) We have Bloggers who are seen as influencers. Do they have a higher
>> duty when communicating?*
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Mercy Mutemi*.
>>
>>
>>
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> --
> Kind Regards,
> Toilem Poriot Godwin
>
> *Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
> and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE*
>
>
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>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
>
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