Various societies in general, and the press in particular, face the dilemma of the spread of misleading information, and not “fake news,” which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) denies the existence of, based on the fact that news only means information that can be verified with the aim of serving the public interest, and therefore information that If it does not meet these criteria, it does not deserve to be classified as news.
Other opinions
Thus, “fake news” carries within it a contradiction that results in an undermining of the credibility of information that actually crosses the threshold of verification and serves the public interest, as providers of misleading information exploit the weaknesses of the recipients or possible divisions between them in order to exploit them to amplify lies and spread them on a large scale, as stated. In the introduction to the book “Journalism… Fake News and Disinformation” issued by UNESCO.
Unlike real news, “fake news” is usually provided for free, and this makes people who cannot afford good professional journalism and who lack independent public service media particularly vulnerable to misinformation, the spread of which has become disinformation. , is widely available across various types of social networks.
The Internet and self-regulation
Due to their nature as intermediary platforms, rather than content creators, companies have generally remained subject to simple legal regulation. Despite this, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on promoting freedom of expression and opinion, in his annual report in 2018, called on Internet companies to learn from the self-regulation applied in social media. Information, while better adhering to UN standards on the right to, seeking and receiving information.
This appears to be what prompted UNESCO to draw the attention of journalists to the realization that although the main arena for disinformation is social media, critical actors today are working to capitalize on fears of “fake news” to suppress real media, noting that “ There are new and strict laws that make media organizations a scapegoat, as if they were the source of fake news.”
Therefore, it is considered that the greatest danger is not unjustified regulatory restrictions on the press, but when a day comes when the public disbelieves in all media content, including what is published and broadcast by the professional press. In this scenario, the book suggests, people will believe the content supported by their social networks, which is consistent with their feelings and desires, and not with their minds and common sense.
Media education
In this context, the media is called upon to take the initiative to apply professional standards and ethics more closely, avoid publishing information that has not been verified, and stay away from information that may interest some of the public, but at the same time does not serve the public interest. It is also the duty of the press to proactively detect and expose new cases and forms of disinformation, because this task is an immediate response to an urgent problem with a devastating impact, and complements and reinforces more medium-term strategies such as media education that enable the public to distinguish between real news and misleading information. And the wrong one.
Misinformation and technology
Although the process of exploiting and manipulating information is an ancient historical practice, the 21st century witnessed the use of information as a weapon on an unprecedented scale. Advanced modern technology also makes manipulating and manufacturing content simple, in addition to the fact that social networks greatly amplify the lies spread by countries, populist politicians, and fraudulent companies, and transmitted by an audience without discrimination, which has made these social platforms fertile ground for propaganda and other methods. Disinformation, and digitally supported misinformation risks obliterating the role of journalism, as the book issued by UNESCO explains, which warns that the impact of misinformation on the public is particularly troubling with regard to elections and the idea of democracy itself as a human right, and likewise, it can Migration, climate change and other issues will be greatly affected by the uncertainty caused by disinformation and misinformation.
However, these transformations coincide with what the media is known for as a low level of trust in it, even before social media platforms entered the arena, as well as in the midst of an insatiable hunger for news content, at a time when the budgets allocated to journalism newsrooms are being reduced. The sheer volume of misinformation, its breadth, and the extent of its spread and sharing online has also created a new crisis for journalism, with impacts on journalists, the media, and society.
Although the Covid 19 pandemic has contributed widely to the spread of misinformation, this misleading news was not the result of the Corona virus in 2020, but remained linked to the various stages that humanity has experienced, and which many thinkers have responded to with criticism, study, and research, especially those interested in issues… Politics, media and communication, who contributed their ideas and research to dismantling and alerting to its negative effects on society.
Misinformation before digitization
At the national level, and far from the “controversy” currently aroused in the media arena about false information and misinformation, it seems that the thinker, jurist, and political leader Allal Al-Fassi (1910-1974) was one of the first Moroccans to raise this issue, when he raised attention to the danger of spreading rumors. And false information through the traditional media, such as the written press, radio, and television, which he described as “misinformation that is timeless and placeless, and threatens public opinion and deviates it from the right path.”
Thus, the author of the book “Self-Criticism” said in one of his interventions before the first Moroccan parliament in 1963, “We find public opinion threatened by many misleading deceptions that deviate it from the right path, in addition to the misguidance that is inherited from it.” He held the power of money and its men responsible for the effective role. In misleading people.
All of this is linked to paying attention to the pillars of journalism and media through persuasion and organized advocacy that give it the power of persuasion and influence, with the aim of “developing Moroccan society, in the cities and in the countryside, spreading education among it, forming pure journalism, and eliminating all causes of disagreement and sterile pleasantries, until a public opinion is formed.” Movable, filled with faith in freedom and certainty in the people.”
In a forward-looking vision, Allal Al-Fassi stressed a main idea, saying, “There is no responsibility without freedom, and no freedom without thinking,” at a time when the world, as a whole, has become before each one of us, and the man in the street can now know, from the news of its farthest corners, what The great scholars and travelers did not know it yesterday, whereas in past ages, every aspect of the world was separate from one another.”
Since each of these aspects has its own problems, events, stages of development, and the opinions and means to achieve them that arise from all of this, news of all of this has become transmitted in all circles, and everyone is forced to read it in the newspapers, hear it on the radio, delve into it and comment on it. And listen to those who talk about it.
Defense line
He noticed at the time that modern progress had placed in the hands of governments many tools that were not within the reach of others. They were now able to operate radio stations and newspapers, diversify advertisements, and create methods of entertainment and diversion that would occupy public thought or direct it in the direction it wanted. “. He concluded by saying, “If freedom is going to burn us, then let us do it. In any case, it is better than pressure and being nourished by ideas regulated by the worship of power or the worship of money. In order for us to be able to take this position on freedom, our elite must be liberated from all sensory authority.” Or moral, for those with money or prestige, and that it does not come into its thinking except from an absolute detachment from all temporary benefits, taking into account only the interest of the nation and the interest of freedom.
In general, the professional standards of journalism, governed by ethics and accountability, “are an important line of defense against misinformation and false information,” especially in light of the development of rules and values directed to the benefit of journalism practitioners over the years for journalism to carry out its mission, supported by the transparency of the journalistic process and the clear application of ethical standards, as stated further. In the author of the aforementioned UNESCO book, whose editors stress that the distinctive role of journalism today lies in its ability to contribute to clarification and build confidence in content that has been subjected to scrutiny before publication while adhering to the principles of accuracy, independence, fairness, humanity, accountability and transparency.