The term “fake news” was brought to its peak popularity during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The term itself dates back to the late 19th century. Fake news is not a new concept, but due to the internet and various social networking sites everyone is more connected than ever and news spreads like wildfire. Where usually fake news would travel from mouth to mouth, now there are countless bots spreading info under the guise of being a simple person just like the rest of us.
Peter Pomerantsev has written a book about how fake news is being used for manipulating politics called “This is not Propaganda”, where he explains the spread of fake news and how that is being used to manipulate our world view better than I ever could. I truly recommend it.
Twitter has started fighting against the spread of fake news on its platform by implementing a little pop-up when you hit retweet on an article it detects you haven’t opened. We live in an age of constant information, so clicks have turned into currency. Headlines are the easiest to read. They’re short, exciting, and simple.
Twitter also flags any content it deems may have false information. This was well documented during the 2020 US elections concerning Donald Trump’s tweets about voter fraud and him falsely declaring himself the winner. However, statements made by a singular person (even though influential) are relatively easy to debunk.
The true struggle with fake news comes from the infinite amount of bots. They’re the perfect machine for modern propaganda. The accounts are set up as regular people just sharing their opinion online as so many of us enjoy doing. The content spread by the bots is getting validated by themselves. It’s not uncommon to see two bots having a conversation amongst themselves in a Twitter thread. If you’re a tech-savvy user and have picked up on how the bots behave, then it’s quite easy to distinguish them from an actual person.
However, most internet users don’t grasp that, especially older people, who haven’t grown up on the internet. That’s why fake news runs so rampant on Facebook.
Fake news and alternative media are fueled by polarization, which is not lacking in today’s society. Polarization happens due to some sides feeling left out and discriminated against, so they create their own bubble of information. People are often drawn to alternative media due to the feeling of hopelessness. Everyone wants to feel like they belong so they search it out.
Aggressively dismissing people due to their beliefs only creates more distance and polarisation between two already torn sides of what is supposed to be the same coin. Telling people to just understand and accept that people have different beliefs is a privilege. Being able to have conversations and trying to understand both sides of the spectrum is a privilege. However, if you are in a position, where you are able to have that kind of conversation, please do. The world has seen enough of polarisation through history, it never ended well.
Once you repeat something enough the brain is more likely to accept it as the truth, even if it is a blatant lie. This topic is discussed in Daniel Kahneman’s award-winning book “Thinking Fast and Slow”. So if you’re desperate enough and have seen enough people talk about essential oils curing cancer, you might start to believe it.
That’s why fake news hurts the vulnerable.
How does marketing come into play here? Well, if you’re brazen enough you can call fake news and botting a new-age guerilla campaign. However, most of us don’t think like this.
Social media has become a hotspot for activism. There are countless graphs and aesthetically pleasing things to repost and share. As activism grows among users, socially conscious companies are also posting about what matters to them.
At the end of the day, marketers and company owners are people too and might fall victim to fake news without even realizing it.
Checking your sources before sharing something with your customer base is essential. Trust that has been broken is very hard to build back up, especially with the plethora of service providers people can turn to.
Let’s stay united and safe.
with the truth.
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