Consumption of fake news and answers to it will often implicate the freedom of expression. Control designed to combat fake news can hinder the universal right to freedom of expression. At the same time, propaganda spread by fake news can impact perceptions of governments, elections, and overall attitudes within societies, undermining the integrity of the democratic process.
social media accounts has evolved from a place to post selfie, travel pics, and what you ate for dinner to a platform that people are using to make big money through adverts and now the latest trend driving out shocking, garbage with a goal of going viral.
Fake news, once confined to parody of the internet, has quickly become a challenger for the most powerful expression of the year, after it was revealed that it had an effect on the US General Elections which is a terrifying position to be in. Some of fake news going round on social media includes;
Fake news pic.twitter.com/CCBJCT6jud
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) February 17, 2017
Fake news pic.twitter.com/PpXXflqnxM
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) February 20, 2017
When Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, was running for office in 2014, he was accused through social media of being a Chinese Christian and a communist — severe criticism in the deeply Islamic country. The Indonesian politician released his marriage certificate to prove he wasn’t Chinese and made a pilgrimage to Mecca just before voting.
“The fake news had a very big impact in our campaign,” said Tubagus Ramadhan, who helped Mr. Widodo run his social media campaign during the election.
Even in long-established democracies like Germany, Spain and Italy, have reported false news reports and hate speech on social media have whipped up grass-roots populist movements, which have often targeted the recent arrival of Middle Eastern refugees, to save wider election support.
Kenya is one of the several countries having an election this year and it will be great if they rolled out the feature to curb fake news soon enough before the election. Social medial have a huge presence in Kenya. Restricting the spreading of fake news could have a positive impact in the curbing of scam.
These’s a big risk —that social media will hollow out existing gaps in these civilizations. WherePeople are still learning how to use social media, so many can easily fall for hoaxes.
