Just like the fight against smoking, combating misinformation will be a complex and ongoing effort, ... [+] involving a mix of sensible regulation, content moderation, and warnings, along with education.

If you are a parent of a teenager, you have heard and maybe even worried about the rise of TikTok. The social media platforms users are mostly teens and younger kids, who use it to share short videos. Kids often imitate dances from the site, using a flurry of hand and arm movements. Think handjive meets hip hop.

TikTok is perhaps best known for Trumps ill-fated attempt to ban it because of its ties to China, but it has a large fake news problem too. Election misinformation was prevalent on the platform; and this summer, the #Pizzagate conspiracy theory exploded on TikTok.

This is alarming since young users are often not yet media savvy, but it also raises some broader questions about why exactly fake news on social media spreads. More specifically, is the main problem political bias or is it just a lack of thinking? Should I be worried about my child visiting TikTok given its fake news problem?

In todays highly polarized political environment, with fragmented media constructing alternative realities for their readers and viewers, it might seem obvious that the main culprit behind the prevalence of misinformation is motivated reasoning, or types of tribalistic thinking. In other words, people believe what they want to believe and disregard countervailing evidence, and social media platforms like TikTok just make the problem worse by pushing certain messages via algorithms.

But a new paper, synthesizing previous research, suggests the fake news problem extends beyond partisan actors and ultimately implicates the social media environment of apps like Tik Tok and the type of thinking they foster or fail to foster.

According to the authors Gordon Pennycook and David G. Rand, It seems that people fall for fake news because they do not stop and reflect sufficiently on their prior knowledge and not because their reasoning is hijacked by political motivations.

If true, the research can have important implications since it suggests education and small nudge interventions can be an effective perhaps the most effective tool in countering misinformation.

Just as important, the research also helps explain why kids, who usually dont yet have particularly strong political biases, are more susceptible to misinformation on TikTok and other social media sites.

First, a bit about one of Pennycook and Rands experiments. They asked subjects to judge the accuracy of fake news headlines and then set out to determine whether their competence correlated with political identification. What they found was that poor news judgment correlated much more strongly with poor performance on Cognitive Reflection Test than with political ideology. (CRTs measure takers ability to step back from immediate, intuitive answers and do more reflection.)

Other experiments suggest similarly that sharing fake news on social media is driven more by inattention and emotion than ideology. The social media context itself, write Pennycook and Rand, distracts people from prioritizing the truth when they decide what to share.

The bizarre reemergence of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory on TikTok seems to at least partially validate Pennycook and Rands research. The spread of the theory amongst younger users doesnt seem to be motivated by hatred and suspicion of elites like it was in its initial iteration, but simply by entertainment value, inattention, and the desire to share.

This may make it seem relatively harmless, but as weve seen time and again, no matter how bizarre and even humorous these theories seem on their face, they can still carry real-world impact down the line.

There are few important caveats to Rand and Pennycooks research. It pertains to explicitly false news, rather than simply hyperpartisan sources that can be extremely misleading without being fake. Also, it is difficult to know how the experimental conditions influenced the participants performance.

Then again, that is part of the point of this research. It suggests that changing the frame of mind of news consumers making them more active and attentive may be enough to improve their behavior around certain content. Pennycook and Rand favor nudges like having participants rate headlines for accuracy, or asking them to explain how they know something to be true or false. These might be introduced by social media platforms themselves or by third-parties through ads. Reboots own research on fake news has similarly found that quick educational interventions like a short video can also have a beneficial impact.

As the researchers point out, these interventions avoid turning Facebook and Twitter into censors or arbiters of truth. Instead, they leverage users own (often latent) ability to make such determinations themselves.

In other words, people are more capable of good reasoning than we are sometimes prepared to give them credit for. The key is to put them in a position to put that reasoning into action. With young people, this means providing them with the education early in life to think critically and develop media literacy skills something were hard at work on at Reboot. And it means disrupting the social media environments that lead both adults and kids to think poorly or not think at all.

So, is Tik Tok safe? Parents should keep their childrens critical thinking skills in mind as they begin to use sites like TikTok. This doesnt mean banning the app outright, but it might mean talking through the problems of misinformation on social media and the ways in which social media can distort our thinking more generally.

As for fake news more broadly, education is not the only piece of the puzzle. Just like the fight against smoking, combating misinformation will be a complex and ongoing effort, involving a mix of sensible regulation, content moderation, and warnings, along with education.

We cant expect to ever stamp out misinformation completely or to regulate it out of existence, as attractive as those options might seem. Rather, to overcome the misinformation crisis, we have to believe in each other and in the power of human reason. Thinking, in this case, can make it so.

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The TikTok Of The Fake News Clock: Thinking Our Way Out Of The Fake News Crisis - Forbes

On January 6, as public officials met to certify Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 Presidential Election, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the capitol by mob, resulting in a riot that left five people dead.

In the days leading up to the riot, supporters of President Trump used a myriad of mainstream and fringe social media sites to organize and discuss the possibility of violence. Websites like Parler and TheDonald.win were rife with posts about storming the Capitol, according to an article in The Hill.

According to reporting by the New York Times, as Donald Trump ended his afternoon rally by calling on protestors to march on Congress, right-wing groups immediately took to these sites to promote the attack. At least 12 people openly posted about carrying guns inside the Capitol building, with others recommending tools that could help pry open doors.

Some were dressed in Viking costumes, some looked like soldiers in camouflage military uniforms, and others carried with them symbols of hate.

But they all united as they had been for months around a common falsehood: The election had been unlawfully stolen from Trump, who deserved the victory.

Fake news, from what it is to how it spreads, has been a hot topic throughout the past few years, especially amidst the recent election.

In the weeks following Election Day, President Trump has been making claims of widespread fraud that wrongfully resulted in Joe Bidens win.

Jeff Hemsley, Professor of Information Studies at the iSchool, says that there are always minor amounts of fraud in every election. Out of nearly 160 million votes, he suspects that only a tiny fraction of ballots may have been fraudulent. Probably less than 1%.

[President Trump] is essentially creating and instigating a fake news story, he said.

Hemsley argues that these instances of fake news are really just propaganda something that has been around since there have been governments and churches at all.

At its core, propaganda is simply distorted information thats published for someones political gain. And whether its a wartime newspaper ad or a seemingly innocent social media post, propaganda is only successful to the extent that people believe it and it spreads.

So what is it that makes something go viral?

Hemsley says the key thing to remember is that stories dont go viral unless a lot of people share it (a lot being relative to the audience and platform).

A CNN video with a million views, for example, isnt necessarily viral. CNN simply has a lot of viewers.

But if that video is frequently shared and spreads as a result, then we might call it viral.

According to Hemsley, one reason fake news spreads is because its often inflammatory in some way. That makes it exciting and worth talking about it.

The things that tend to spread are things that are remarkable, he said, Remarkable just means people are talking about it, or remarking on it. And thats virality.

For example, the Black Lives Matter movement is largely the result of many viral events linked together, Hemsley argues. The general public became aware of the severity of police brutality and racial injustice ultimately because videos from bystanders went viral again and again.

Another well-known example is Pizzagate, a fake news story started on the conspiracy-oriented online message board 4chan.

In 2016, a 4chan user fabricated a story about the Comet Ping Pong pizza shop in Washington, DC, falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton and other Democratic elites used the pizza shops basement as a site for child sexual abuse.

In response, a North Carolina man attempting to investigate the conspiracy himself drove to the restaurant and fired a semi-automatic rifle inside in order to break the lock to a storage room.

As it turns out, Comet Ping Pong doesnt even have a basement at all nor does it engage in any of the alleged illicit activities.

Pizzagate is often considered to be a predecessor to other conspiracy theories such as QAnon, whose central premise is that Satanic cannibals run a global child sex trafficking ring that plots to overthrow Donald Trump.

While admittedly far-fetched on its own, in August 2019, the FBI published a report calling QAnon a possible source of domestic terror.

These stories and countless others show just how severe the consequences of fake news can be, though the logistics of preventing it can be difficult to sort out at scale.

Hemsley does think that public pressure can play a significant role in shaping the prevention of fake news. Facebooks decision to disable the share button on viral posts after a certain limit, for instance, likely came about as the result of public concern.

More recently, these companies have cracked down even harder in an effort to mitigate social tensions. Facebook banned thousands of QAnon accounts in October and, following the attack on the Capitol, placed an indefinite suspension on Donald Trumps account there at least until his term is over.

Twitter also made the move to permanently suspend the Presidents account, while Amazon, Apple, and Google have all withdrawn infrastructure support for Parler by denying service from AWS, the App Store, and Google Play, respectively.

He warns us, however, to be careful about the way we answer the question of whether online platforms and media outlets should limit fake news.

Once we say that a decision needs to be made, it becomes tricky to determine exactly who gets the power to decide. Who becomes the arbitrator?

A more pragmatic approach would be to take individual responsibility for the information we receive and evaluate it critically.

Hemsley recommends checking out the interactive Media Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media.

The tool plots news media outlets on a graph with axes representing political bias (from most extreme left to most extreme right) and overall source reliability (from fabricated info to original fact reporting).

Almost all news organizations are biased, but some lie more than others, Hemsley said, If youre going to look at Fox News, also look at MSNBC. If youre going to look at things on the far right, look at things on the far left. But focus mainly on the sources in the middle.

The best news, he says, tends to come from the center and is less driven by value statements than by factual statements. These include outlets like Reuters, the Associated Press, and CBS Local.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to do is to pay attention and seek out the truth regardless of your own personal beliefs and biases.

The world can change as the result of viral events, Hemsley said, The thing we need to understand is that [it] can change for better or for worse.

If it turns out that the lie is sexier than the truth, then were in danger of undermining our very democracy.

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When Fake News Turns Into Conspiracy Theories: The viral factor in today's media landscape, and what we can do to stop it - Syracuse University News

From loose tigers to voter fraud, news outlets and social media have contributed to the explosive growth of fake news stories and false information in recent years.

But if one thing has become increasingly clear, its that fake news can have very real, very dangerous consequences.

We spoke to Jeff Hemsley, Josh Introne, Bei Yu, and Lu Xiao each of them a professor here at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies to dig into the nature of fake news and what we can all do to mitigate its impact.

Looking for a program that lets you study informations effect on society? Check out our undergraduate and graduate programs at the iSchool.

Its one thing to hear something that isnt true. Its another to believe it. Its these beliefs that lead to action, which can have both positive and negative repercussions.

Josh Introne, Assistant Professor of Information Studies at the iSchool, studies how our belief systems impact the stories and information we choose to accept as true.

His research examines belief systems pools of interconnected beliefs that are likely to occur together within certain populations.

He says, for example, that a person who believes that the Affordable Care Act was an important step in improving healthcare is also likely to support gun control as a means of addressing gun violence.

Introne attributes peoples individual susceptibility to false information to their belief systems and tribalism a state where the identity of the group becomes more important than the identity of the individual.

Read the full story: How our Belief Systems Make us More Susceptible to Misinformation

Fake news isnt just some online phenomenon. As events like Pizzagate and the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol make clear, a popular fake news story can result in violent action and fatal consequences.

Jeff Hemsley, Associate Professor of Information Studies at the iSchool, argues that many instances of fake news, such as those peddled by President Trump, are really just propaganda distorted information thats published for someones political gain.

And whether its a wartime newspaper ad or a seemingly innocent social media post, propaganda is only successful to the extent that it spreads.

The things that tend to spread are things that are remarkable, he said, Remarkable just means people are talking about it. And thats virality.

Fake news gets shared because its often inflammatory in some way. That makes it exciting and worth talking about it.

The world can change as the result of viral events, Hemsley said.

If it turns out that the lie is sexier than the truth, then were in danger of undermining our very democracy.

Read the full story: When Fake News Turns Into Conspiracy Theories: The viral factor in todays media landscape, and what we can do to stop it

Some false information is the result of an honest mistake. Most fake news stories, on the other hand, are produced with the intent to deceive.

This is the difference between mis-information (honest) and dis-information (deceptive).

Bei Yu and Lu Xiao, both Associate Professors of Information Studies at the iSchool, study techniques of persuasion and how they are used to proliferate instances of disinformation.

Heres a few things they say you can do to spot fake news online

Here, they share five techniques they recommend for easily identifying when a piece of information is false or has been produced to deceive, and how to make sure your own bias doesnt get in the way of knowing when information is not true.

Read the full story: 5 Ways to Spot Misinformation and Disinformation Online

The prevalence of fake news, along with the sheer volume of information we interact with every day, can make it difficult to figure out whats true and whats not. When it comes to false information and especially disinformation, the consequences can be fatal.

Here are a few simple actions we can all do to take control of information in our own lives and reduce the impact that fake news can have in the real world:

When we make the effort to seek out truth, we commit to advancing a world built on honesty, transparency, and perhaps most importantly of all, trust among each other.

Looking for a program that lets you study informations effect on society? Check out our undergraduate and graduate programs at the iSchool.

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Fake News: Why People Believe, How It Spreads, and What You Can Do About It - Syracuse University News

(February 9, 2021 / JNS) Welcome to a world where you cant trust a single thing you hear. The news is dismissed as fake, and the information we receive comes with alternating prefixesmis or dis.

Is anything were told ever true?

Former President Donald Trump introduced a new genre of truth-telling known as fake news. It started on day one, immediately after his inauguration, when truth went into eclipse. The inaugural was sparsely attended by historical comparisons. No shame in that. But Trump, always the showman and annoyed by a simultaneous Womens March inspired by his infamous Access Hollywood segment, decided that the media had severely undercounted the crowd. A record number of well-wishers had actually attended the kickoff to his presidency.

And with that, all unflattering news about the Trump administration was forevermore deemed as fake by the administration. The media, for its part, didnt help matters by reporting only negative news about the presidentno quarter for any of his achievements, never given the benefit of the doubt. The battle lines were clearly delineated. Trump referred to the press as the enemy. The media didnt exactly rise above the skirmish. (The ratings were too good. Besides, they built him with all the free coverage he received during the 2016 campaign.)

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And so, fake news entered the public consciousness. Journalists and broadcasters might have their own agendas, and it had nothing to do with truth-telling. They didnt so much as report the news as implant a story they wanted the American public to believegiving it a decidedly Blue State bias. They werent journalists but evangelists, deliberately leaving out facts, slanting content, editorializing rather than objectively reporting.

Trump had a new twist on Marshall McLuhans seminal work, The Medium Is the Message. The media wasnt going to let facts get in the way of directing its readers or audience what to think. Trump was a news junkies godsend. With himthe ultimate bad guy, so easy to root againsteven bad news would be welcome. News was suddenly tailored for a particular audience. The central message would remain unchanged, no matter what events actually transpired. Confirmation biases were reassuringly spoon fed and lapped up.

Tune in and join the revelry of the like-minded: Donald Trump was evil, and anyone who supported him or even had conflicted feelings about him was no better than the man himself.

Ever since the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, however, the Biden administration has already adopted its own strategy for shaping the news. Whatever the public was hearing that wasnt consistent with the aims of the new administration was casually dismissed as untrue, concocted by those who only wish to deceive.

Of course, its easier to control the message when both mass media, which commodifies the news, and social media, which accelerates its delivery, are on your side. Bidens cushy treatment by the media so far suggests that it might surpass the eight years of kid-gloving the Obama White House. The Fourth Estate might be in line for a Cabinet seat.

Americans are now being repeatedly warned to stay on constant alert for misinformation or, even worse, disinformation. The government and the mainstream press are jointly informing the public that if news is reported outside of official channels, then it should be dismissed as incorrect.

And what kinds of falsehoods are slyly being peddled as truth? Anything that cast doubt on the recent presidential election or Hunter Bidens business dealings in China. Anything that suggests that America is not a racist nation with half its population as white supremacists. Favorable stories about the oil and coal industries. Any mention that transgender women should not be able to participate in womens collegiate sports. Anyone who disapproves of open borders or complains about rising crime rates and releasing offenders without bail. And the most dreaded disinformation of all: that the police arent actually targeting African-American males.

Surrounded as we are by either news that is fake or information that is plainly false, where only one point of view can be tolerated and no differences of opinion are allowed, no wonder that far too many Americans are walking around with clenched teeth, their heads filled with multiple conspiracy theories.

It wasnt always this way.

Remember Walter Cronkite, anchorman for the CBS Evening News for nearly 20 years, with his avuncular voice keeping the nation informed about the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam war, the Apollo moon landing and Watergate? He wasnt Hollywood handsome or controversial or particularly entertaining, and yet 29 million Americans (nowadays, the major networks manage only 5 million viewers) religiously watched his broadcast every night.

All that time, we never knew whether he was a Democrat or Republican, a liberal or conservative; whether he was against the war in Vietnam; whether he believed the counterculture needed a haircut and that Woodstock spelled the end of the world. Knowing those things about him was none of our business. He was a newsman; his subjective feelings didnt interfere with his job.

Opinion polls routinely and overwhelmingly reflected the national sentiment that he was the most trusted man in America.

Who would occupy that lofty post of national faithfulness today? Would any of the network or cable news anchors rank ahead of Kim Kardashian?

Earning the trust of the people is the only way that institutionswhether they be governmental, corporate or communicationshave any legitimacy. The character of a nation depends on a social contract that is drafted without signatures. Its all sealed with a handshake.

Today, we are surrounded by mistrust and skepticism everywhere. Promises arent just broken; they were never believed at the outset. Truth is elusive and consensus is nonexistent. Shaking hands is impossible when people wont meet one another halfway.

The absence of mutual respect numbered the days of polite society. Just look at the rage thats exhibited online. Snark has replaced smarts. Artificial intelligence cant arrive soon enough. Placing our trust in machines has better prospects.

We might be able to reverse course. But for now, as Cronkite signed-off nightly, And thats the way it is.

Thane Rosenbaumis a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro College, where he directs theForum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst forCBS News Radio.His most recent book is titled Saving Free Speech From Itself.

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The dog days of fake news and misinformation - JNS.org

The combination of political divisiveness and the COVID-19 pandemic led to fake news running rampant on social media in 2020. That's not really news; but you might be surprised at how fake news was shared. According to The German Marshall Fund of the United States, verified Twitter users shared a significant percentage of deceptive website news by the end of the year.

The GMF discovered that false content producers and manipulators received nearly one third (47 million) of the 155 million verified-account shares in Q4 2020. Overall, false-content-producer shares increased by over 160%, and manipulators increased by nearly 120%, while all US websites increased by a mere 14% in 2020. This has led false-content producers and manipulators to, respectively, triple and double their verified account shares since 2018.

At the top of the chart is the Gateway Pundit, which received more shares from verified Twitter users at the end of the year than The Washington Post. Breitbart received an equal amount of interactions, and Fox News, Just the News, and the Epoch Times ranked higher than NBC News.

Facebook has also contributed to the spread of disinformation, with manipulators growing their interactions 165% over the last four years against just a 75% increase for all US-based sites. In total, deceptive websites received 6.4 billion interactions in 2020, twice the number seen four years ago. In the fourth quarter of 2020 alone, deceptive sites received 1.2 billion interactions, nearly a fourth of the total 5.1 billion interactions for US-based sites.

Many false-content producers and manipulators did see a drastic fall in interactions as a result of Facebook changing its algorithm. But RedStateObserver.com still managed to receive more interactions than the Wall Street Journal in the fourth quarter of 2020. Newsmax also managed to beat out the Los Angeles Times in that same time period.

Given the results that were collected this past year, the GMF is comfortable confirming that the actions made by Facebook and Twitter to stop the spread of fake news proved to be effective. Hopefully, these platforms will continue their efforts to manage the content people publish and share. In the meantime, here are several tools to help identify what's real and what's fake news.

Further Reading

Social Media Reviews

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Verified Twitter Users Shared an All-Time-High Amount of Fake News in 2020 - PCMag

The fight against the spread of false news or fake news, as it is widely known has been a seemingly endless battle amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The government has been warning the public since the first wave of Covid-19 infections about the dangers of spreading fake news, and even regarded it as a punishable offence.

Now, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University have found that a possible way of stopping the spread of false news is through the use of fact-checking labels.

The researchers conducted a study that involved two experiments, where a total of 2 683 participants were tasked with reading headlines taken from social media, of which 18 were true and 18 false.

In the treatment conditions, 'true' and 'false' tags appeared before, during, or after participants read each headline, the researchers explain in their paper. Participants could then rate the headlines for accuracy.

There was also a control group who did not see any information about whether the headlines were true or not.

A week after the first experiment, participants were given another opportunity to view the headlines and rate them, but this time the researchers excluded the fact-check information.

Findings of the study indicate that timing is important when correcting fake news: Going into the project, I had anticipated it would work best to give the correction beforehand, so that people already knew to disbelieve the false claim when they came into contact with it, said David Rand, an MIT professor and co-author of the paper.

To my surprise, we actually found the opposite. Debunking the claim after they were exposed to it was the most effective.

The researchers noted that a possible reason why debunking worked better than prebunking is because allowing people to form their own impressions of news headlines, then providing 'true' or 'false' tags afterwards, might act as feedback.

Lead author and cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University, Nadia M. Brashier, went on to explain: Other research shows that feedback makes correct information 'stick.

Co-author, Adam Berinsky, who is a Professor of Political Science at MIT, explained that this study can be useful for creating tools that can be used on social media platforms in order to combat misinformation being spread online.

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How to combat the spread of fake news - News24

A Facebook group named "No to a green passport" had spewed for several weeks a toxic combination of fake news and dangerous calls to action in relation to Covid-19 vaccinations. Even while the national vaccine program is in full throttle and millions of Israelis are responding to the calls to get vaccinated, this group amassed 14,000 followers and continues to spread lies about the vaccine. According to some reports, the group even encouraged its members to make appointments to be vaccinated and then not show up, preventing others from booking an appointment and forcing unused doses of vaccines to be discarded.

The Ministry of Health tracked this almost in real-time and took action, with Facebook eventually removing the group on Sunday. "We set up several months ago a fake news operations room which is composed of citizens that are tracking the net," Health Ministry Deputy Director Einav Shimron-Greenbaum told Calcalist. "We receive many approaches from various sources and when we identify something as fake news, for example, a forgery of the ministry's logo or the use of partial truths or data that isn't relevant to the matter, we go with those lies to the Ministry of Justice's cyber unit. They approach the relevant networks - Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or anywhere else where it appears, and request they remove it. We have had several pages removed that way. We identified the dangers of fake news early on and that is why we contacted the cyber unit, Facebook and all the other relevant bodies in advance."

Shimron-Greenbaum said the ministry isn't just settling for addressing the matter with the major platforms. "There are also instances in which we approach the police."

"When it was reported that there are users that are publishing posts in which they spoke of how they made appointments and didn't show up so that vaccines get thrown out at the end of the day, we turned to the police and they began looking into it. We are a government ministry and we can only use the means of enforcement that we have at our disposal."

"Fake news affects behavior and can influence the decision of whether to be vaccinated or not," explained Karine Nahon, the elected president of the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL), an Associate Professor of Information Science in the Lauder School of Government and Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya (IDC), and an Affiliated Associate Professor in the Information School at University of Washington (UW).

Facebook is also intensifying its actions against vaccine-related fake news, announcing on Monday that it will be taking stricter measures to crack down on misinformation about vaccines in general, as well as misleading posts related to Covid-19.

Nahon warned, however, that it is important not to take a too extreme approach when it comes to vaccine-related discussions. "People are not being allowed to express their opinion against vaccines. There are people who say that there isn't much information on what the vaccine does and that is true. The entire issue with pregnant women is that it is still unclear how they are affected by the vaccine and yet it is being offered to them. There is no mechanism in place to try and create a tolerant discussion in which people voice their opinions calmly and reasonably amid the onslaught of fake news and half-truths. Fake news ends up coming out on top and then you hear nothing else and there is no discourse."

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Ministry of Health waging war on fake news pandemic - CTech

Image: Cartoon / Egyptoon on Facebook

24 January 2021: State security forces arrested cartoonist Ashraf Hamdi on false news charges at his home in Giza for posting a video on Facebook dedicated to Egypts 2011 revolution, reported Reuters.

The video was removed from Facebook.

According to Reuters, the videos publication coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, which toppled then-President Hosni Mubarak.

In the since-removed video, Hamdi included a character speaking about freedom and revolution.

I am the voice when the world wants silence. Im the one who stood in the face of injustice, corruption, tyranny, the character in the video said, reported Middle East Eye.

Hamdi was allegedly accused of having misused social media sites and disseminated fake news, both criminal offences but authorities have not disclosed a specific reason for his arrest, reported Committee to Protect Journalists.

His arrest follows the extension of emergency laws that Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly issued ahead of the revolutions anniversary.

Thousands of people reacted to a post the artist uploaded to his personal Facebook account, saying Im getting arrested. They expressed great concern about the whereabouts of the artist.

Posted by Ashraf Hamdi onSunday, January 24, 2021

Hamdi is recognised for his cartoon blog Egyptoon. It showcases Egypts social and political matters through cartoon characters in a humorous way.

His Egyptoons YouTube channel counts with more than three million subscribers and its Facebook page, with over 1.2 million followers.

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Egypt: Cartoonist arrested over allegations of spreading fake news - Freemuse

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday vowed to legislate a set of bills that would increase the burden of responsibility of news media, internet portals, YouTubers and bloggers for fake or false news.

"We decided to push for legislation under the principle that news media and internet portals should be included among the subjects of punitive compensation," DP spokesman Rep. Choi In-ho told reporters after a meeting of the party's task force on media reform. The party will make efforts to get the relevant bills passed at the National Assembly this month, he added.

Earlier, the task force selected six bills -- including one seeking to allow a victim of fraudulent or illegitimate information circulated online to sue those responsible for the information's spreading for triple the amount of indemnity allowed under current law -- for the party's supreme council to push to legislate in the ongoing monthlong extra parliamentary session.

The governing party currently commands 174 of the 300 parliamentary seats.

The legislative initiative came as whirlwinds of unfounded claims or rumors circulated on YouTube, social media networks and the internet have posed a major challenge to administering state affairs, such as the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as safeguarding the privacy of individuals.

During a party supreme council meeting last week, DP Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon described fake news and other reports with "malicious" intent as "anti-social crimes," vowing to legislate related acts during the February parliamentary session.

"It is unavoidable to take the minimum necessary actions to safeguard the rights and honor of the people and maintain society's safety and trust," Lee said, instructing the party task force to get the bills passed through the National Assembly.

The six bills under consideration propose revising the promotion of information and communications networks act, the press arbitration act and the criminal act, respectively, in a bid to clamp down on fake news and boost compensations to victims for damage incurred by such unfounded reports.

One of the bills -- a revision to the press arbitration act -- seeks to enable blocking press reports on the internet if they are found to have inflicted damage through online news circulation.

Another proposed revision to the criminal act aims to newly include television and other broadcasters among those to be punished along with newspaper and magazine publishers and radio broadcasters if found guilty of defamation.

Unarguably, the most controversial of the six bills is a revision to the communications networks act proposed by Rep. Yoon Young-chan.

The bill seeks to allow a victim of fraudulent or illegitimate information circulated online to sue those responsible for the information's spreading for triple the amount of indemnity allowed under current law as part of "punitive" accumulated compensation.

At the center of the party's debate on the bill has been whether news outlets and internet portals should be also among those to be regulated by the proposed legislation.

The bill previously targeted YouTubers or other internet users, but the party task force decided Tuesday to include news outlets and internet portals among the subjects of the proposed act.

Opposition parties, including the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), however, vehemently denounced the legislation drive as aimed at "gagging" the news media.

"What the DP describes as a reform only intends to cut out the arms and legs of those they don't like and gas them," PPP spokesperson Kim Ye-ryeong said last week.

Even if the bills are passed into law as the DP plans, however, they are expected to leave too much room for dispute when it comes to implementation as the proposals left the critical question of how to define fake news unanswered.

An official at the party task force said it will seek a separate law on how to define fake news over the long run in accordance with the due procedures under the National Assembly Act, leaving the issue up to further discussion in the future.(Yonhap)

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Ruling party accelerates legislation drive to curb fake news - The Korea Herald

Leicester's world famous strongman is urging people in the city and county to "ignore fake news and conspiracy theories" and get the Covid-19 jab when offered it.

Serial world record breaker Manjit Singh is hoping to lead by example after recently attending hospital to receive the coronavirus vaccine himself.

The 71-year-old granddad and fitness fanatic is renowned for taking on some of the most daunting and unusual tests of strength out there - and emerging victorious from most of them.

A hero to his many fans around the world as the Leicester Ironman, he is the holder of no less than 68 Guinness World Records - for feats ranging from pulling an empty double decker bus over 55 feet with his teeth; using his ears to lift 85 kg, and hauling a Vulcan bomber for 15.24 cm with a harness around his body.

Manjit, who has made the Highfields area of the city his home since arriving in the UK from India back in 1977, got in touch with LeicestershireLive after reading an article about how fake news circulating in some communities was putting people off getting the vaccine.

"I've heard some of the rumours myself and can't believe what I'm hearing to be honest," he said.

Manjit, who competed on Britain's Got Talent in 2009, had an invitation from the NHS to be given a vaccination at Leicester Royal Infirmary at the end of January.

"When I got the phone call I was delighted," he said. "I went along on a Sunday morning and the staff were so nice.

"The needle they use is so thin I didn't even feel it. I had the Pfizer vaccine and within 20 minutes of arriving it was all done.

"It was wonderful really. And the only side effect was a slightly sore arm the next day where the needle had gone in.

"That's it, nothing else. I felt fine."

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He added: "When I told people that I'd had the vaccine some of them told me I was crazy and should have waited until everyone else had had it first to make sure it was safe.

"I also posted something on my Facebook page and had some ridiculous replies.

"Some people are just so silly. One person sent me a link to an article about how the WHO (World Health Organisation) was trying to sterilise us all to reduce the world's population.

"I don't know where they get all this nonsense from. It is so obviously a load of rubbish, but people still believe it."

Manjit also has experience of the so-called Covid deniers.

"I work as a security guard in a supermarket and regularly see people come in without wearing a face mask," he said.

"When I challenge them they say the Covid virus is a lie and that sort of thing.

"Some people are either plain foolish or just selfish - or both. They would soon change their minds if a member of their family fell seriously ill."

Manjit is urging people to show some common sense and have faith in the medical professionals and scientists.

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"So much work has gone into developing these vaccines," he said. "And the only way we're going to get out of this crisis and protect the NHS is to get vaccinated.

"Then we can all go down the pub again and meet up with our friends and family as normal.

"But the people who fall for this fake news make that day further away, and put others at risk."

Manjit added: "If in doubt my advice would be to ask your GP if it is safe. Most people would happily take medication their doctor prescribes them in normal circumstances, so why when it comes to the coronavirus do they know better all of a sudden - it's crazy."

LeicestershireLive last spoke to Manjit when he attempted break his own world record by lifting 25 kilograms with each of his eye sockets last November.

He failed on that occasion but it is something he plans to put right once social distancing and travel restrictions are eased.

"I want to give it another try once all this is over," he said. "I was also meant to be a guest on America's Got Talent last March and had booked my flight and everything only for the coronavirus to hit us.

"That was a big disappointment but hopefully I will get another chance."

For more information on booking a vaccination and who is currently eligible, click here.

The rest is here:

Leicester strongman urges people to 'ignore fake news and conspiracy theories' and get the Covid-19 jab! - Leicestershire Live

Donald Trump may have exited the White House but he has left a permanent mark on the English language, with the Macquarie Dictionary labelling fake news, a term Trump used frequently, the word of the decade.

The Australian dictionarys senior editor, Victoria Morgan, says its a fitting title given the way fake news has evolved over the past few years.

It wasnt uncommon for former US president Donald Trump to label critical stories fake news.Credit:Bloomberg

Fake news is different from making a mistake, Morgan says. Its deliberate misinformation. The first definition stands, but what we have is a second definition where its a term used to refer to information thats viewed as being opposed to or detrimental to someones own position. So [fake news] is now being used to attack real news and rob it of its credibility.

And before you ask, no, it isnt wrong to call fake news a word even though its made up of two separate entries in the dictionary.

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Fake news? No, it really is Macquarie Dictionarys word of the decade - Sydney Morning Herald

HOUSTON, TX Come Sunday, with the completion of the Super Bowl, the off-season will be upon us all. Between figuring out what to do about free agents to planning out draft boards, the off-season is not remotely close to relaxing for the 32 NFL franchises. For the 7 teams that saw turnover in the head coaching ranks, there is even more work to do. All of the above issues, in addition to figuring out how the new leadership teams will adapt to the organization. all of this in the still-ongoing pandemic.

The Houston Texans are no exception to the daunting off-season tasks. With a new Head Coach and General Manager, the team can move on to other matters. Yet, even among the teams that must integrate new leadership, the Texans are already running into significant hurdles, previously unforeseen and of a level that threaten the governing philosophy of the team.

What could those issues be? Is it the fact that the Texans project to be $18 million over the new salary cap? Is the fact that of the teams eight draft picks in 2021, none of them are higher than the third round, and over half are day three selections? What of the fact that the team faces some major questions about the future of stars like J.J. Watt and Will Fuller?

Well, I guess those are important football things to be worrying about pondered new GM Nick Caserio. However, that is not even close to the biggest concern we have going right now.

When pressed about what could be bigger than the aforementioned issues, to include the status of the teams relationship with disgruntled franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson, Caserio only shrugged. Trust me, we are facing bigger, existential concerns about the team. Even bigger than how things got so [kittened] up with Watson. Yep, we are currently in a fight about the best type of worship service we want to hold as a team.

Worship Services for the Team? our reporter could only exclaim.

Yes noted a weary Caserio. Ever since we brought over [Dave] Culley and [Lovie] Smith, the Holy Trinity has been hard at work debating the worship procedures for the team.

It all goes back to the Holy Trinity. You see, the driving force behind these debates is Easterby. He is much more of a contemporary service type guy. Thinks that this allows for greater young people participation, and will help solve our team morale and ticket sales. He figures that if we do the contemporary services during home games, we can make up revenue real quick. Could possibly increase game attendance post-COVID. He even went so far as to say that if we, as an organization, implemented the contemporary service, we can easily sway Watson and get him back into the fold.

However, Cal is more old school. He is more of a traditional service guy, with the classic hymns and the regulated sermons. Thinks that Watson will dig the regimented order. Wasnt quite as keen to implement [services] during the games but was open to having the worship service in the mornings before kickoff.

Rootes, well, he is more of the televangelist style. Whatever drives the team towards the optimal prosperity gospel action for the team to help revenues, he is all for.

At this point, Caserio sighs. I keep trying to tell these guys So, what do you want to do about Watson? I cant even so much as go to the bathroom without getting phone calls and text messages about proposed trade deals for Watson. I think I even got an offer from a team in Shanghai. The Jets, the Dolphins, the Raiders, the Montreal Alouettes, the Yankees, the Texas Rangers, the Democratic Party in Texas...they all want to talk deals for Watson. Of course they all suck. Best offer I saw was for a 2025 7th rounder, a bag of magic beans and a slightly used NSRV Bible. Guess they figure that I am like the last boob, er, BOB that ran this office

All I ask is for someone to let me actually make a decision. Instead, all I get from Easterby or Cal is So, Nick, what do you think about the hymn lineup for the season. Should we go with Im Alive and Here I am to Worship on repeat for the first halftime, or should we try The Rock of All Ages? The Rock of All Ages would be a great defensive anthem, no? What do you think?

This job is driving me to meth real quick.

We tried to reach out to members of the Holy Trinity for their inputs. We did receive an email message from Easterby:

Will you mean sinners and social media trolls take the hint? Why do you disturb and disrupt my holy mission to save souls at NFL games? I have been blessed by the Lord on high for this most holy of missions. As I keep telling Cal [when he is sober] the best way to save the corrupt souls of the NFL world and offer the salvation of the Lord is to bring in as many thirsty souls as possible, so that they may partake of the quenching water that is the world of God. The best way to do that is by plugging the contemporary service game experience for the Home Games for 2021. This will bring the young people in droves. Just look at my previous work:

Our reporter replied Wont attendance be better served by fixing the personnel disparities and maybe trying to resolve the dispute with Watson?

The Most Exalted Easterby replied When Watson hears about what we plan to do with the game experience, and how we plan to bring the Lord more into the execution of the team, he will come around. He has willed it that Watson will win the Super Bowl, and I, er, the team, will profit from this action.

We called back to Caserio to ask a few follow-up questions. Oh, I dont know where Culley or Smith stand on this right now. I dont know where they come down on the contemporary vs. traditional debate. Guess I will know soon enough. Well, if there

Caserio received a ping on his cellphone that did not seem to come from another team, but from the Texans front office.

Theyve come to a major decision!!! he states Lets seethe team has decreed thatthey will only...be using grape juice for the communion services for the team. Apparently, Cal was not happy about that, but Easterby overruled him.

Looks like we have solved one the biggest debates of the off-season. Should bode well. Stated Caserio in as flat a voice as possible, although he could barely hide the massive eye roll.

Caserio bid us farewell. However, as we left the Zoom chat, we notice that he was taking out a black zipper bag with what looked like a needle or two and some clear liquid.

Ahhhhhhhso much better! exclaimed a voice a minute later (apparently, he had forgotten to completely log off the computer.)

On that note, we bid all a great day, and wish to leave all readers with these last, uplifting thoughts to make the rest of your day:

Read the original here:

Totally Not Fake News: The Great Debate Within the Houston Texans Front Office - Battle Red Blog

It's time for another information roundup!

READ:#5Things: YouTubers insult Boris Johnson, baby creates music while in womb, and more...

Here are the top five things you just HAVE to know about:

Facebook is fighting fake news

The social media platform has long been fighting the good fight against all kinds of fake news being spread. They have decided to ban any posts containing misinformation concerning vaccines, as people have been claiming that it causes autism.

These types of social media platforms have been taking much more responsibility for the content being shared on their sites, many making significant changes following Donald Trump's unproven claims of election fraud.

Back to school time has arrived

The Department of Basic Education haspublished anamended academic calendarfor South African schoolsfor 2021. The first term will start on Monday, 15 February and end on Friday, 23 April and the school year will officially come to an end on 15 December.

You can find the complete 2021 school calendar here.

Premier League referee receives death threats

Mike Dean, a leading Premier League referee, has had to make some tough calls during his career, but he has now faced with the harshest criticism he has possibly ever received.

After playing a vital role in two separate red card decisions, during two different games, Mike and even his family have been receiving death threats. The red cards have since been overturned after an appeal by the two affected clubs.

The Premier League Chief executive, Richard Masters, has released a statement in which he condemns the actions of the fans, but he also sent out a warning:

See the original post here:

#5Things: Vaccine fake news, coffee is healthy, and you could win a Society Coffee hamper! - East Coast Radio

A woman receives a vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as Israel continues its national vaccination drive, during a third national COVID lockdown, at a Maccabi Healthcare Services branch in Ashdod, Israel December 29, 2020. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

CTech A Facebook group called No to a green passport spewed for several weeks a toxic combination of fake news and dangerous calls to action in relation to Covid-19 vaccinations. Even while Israels national vaccine program is in full throttle and millions of Israelis are responding to the calls to get vaccinated, this group amassed 14,000 followers and continues to spread lies about the vaccine. According to some reports, the group even encouraged its members to make appointments to be vaccinated and then not show up, preventing others from booking an appointment and forcing unused doses of vaccines to be discarded.

The Ministry of Health tracked this almost in real-time and took action, with Facebook eventually removing the group on Sunday. We set up several months ago a fake news operations room which is composed of citizens that are tracking the net, Health Ministry Deputy Director Einav Shimron-Greenbaum told Calcalist.

We receive many approaches from various sources and when we identify something as fake news, for example, a forgery of the ministrys logo or the use of partial truths or data that isnt relevant to the matter, we go with those lies to the Ministry of Justices cyber unit, she said. They approach the relevant networks Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or anywhere else where it appears, and request they remove it. We have had several pages removed that way. We identified the dangers of fake news early on and that is why we contacted the cyber unit, Facebook, and all the other relevant bodies in advance.

Shimron-Greenbaum said the ministry isnt just settling for addressing the matter with the major platforms. There are also instances in which we approach the police.

February 9, 2021 1:32 pm

When it was reported that there are users that are publishing posts in which they spoke of how they made appointments and didnt show up so that vaccines get thrown out at the end of the day, we turned to the police and they began looking into it, she said. We are a government ministry and we can only use the means of enforcement that we have at our disposal.

Fake news affects behavior and can influence the decision of whether to be vaccinated or not, explained Karine Nahon, the elected president of the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL), an Associate Professor of Information Science in the Lauder School of Government and Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya (IDC), and an Affiliated Associate Professor in the Information School at University of Washington (UW).

Shimron-Greenbaum said that the ministry is mainly targeting people who are unresolved about getting the vaccination. Our target audience is the normative public that consults medical professionals. But they are unsure because they are hearing all the lies being spread by the anti-vaccine campaigners, she said. The vaccine program in Israel is a remarkable success compared to the rest of the world. The vaccine was only offered to the 18-35 age group since this past Thursday, and Im sure that they are influenced by the fake news. There is no doubt that they spend more time on social networks and are more exposed to the disinformation.

Facebook is also intensifying its actions against vaccine-related fake news, announcing on Monday that it will be taking stricter measures to crack down on misinformation about vaccines in general, as well as misleading posts related to Covid-19.

Nahon warned, however, that it is important not to take a too extreme approach when it comes to vaccine-related discussions: People are not being allowed to express their opinion against vaccines. There are people who say that there isnt much information on what the vaccine does and that is true. The entire issue with pregnant women is that it is still unclear how they are affected by the vaccine and yet it is being offered to them. There is no mechanism in place to try and create a tolerant discussion in which people voice their opinions calmly and reasonably amid the onslaught of fake news and half-truths. Fake news ends up coming out on top and then you hear nothing else and there is no discourse.

See original here:

Israel's Ministry of Health Waging War on Fake News Pandemic - Algemeiner

GB News launches soon with Andrew Neil as its head and, for that matter, face. Reports suggest that journalists being sought out to staff the channel have been told it will be positioned to the right of the BBC though Neil himself has said merely that it will serve the vast number of British people who feel underserved and unheard, arguing elsewhere that the direction of news debate in Britain is increasingly woke and out of touch with the majority of its people.

It is neither premature nor unduly biased to think its the last thing our media environment needs. Neil has described his aim as to do what the US channels do programming built around strong presenters which becomes an appointment to view. Its difficult not to think in this context of Fox News, which has had a toxic effect on US politics, steadfastly undermining not so much the progressive worldview as the validity, indeed the very existence, of truth.

The peculiarity of our broadcasting regulations would once have been reason enough not to panic, or even mind: while the British press is notorious worldwide for the smears it can get away with, the duty of balance on broadcast media is sacrosanct. GB News has already underlined that it will be bound by Ofcom, as any decent TV news source must. The recent speculation that Paul Dacre will be Ofcoms new head, however, slightly corrodes the confidence this brings.

It is not at all surprising that unease has translated into embryonic online campaigns, in which people on Twitter preemptively petition their mobile phone companies not to advertise with GB News. (The model for this activism is the Stop Funding Hate campaign, with major advertisers asked to cancel their spend with the Sun, the Mail and the Express, which has been semi-successful, though not so much against UK tabloids as against Facebook: 900 companies have now paused their ad spend on the platform.)

Neil tweeted at the weekend: The woke warriors trying to stir up an advertising boycott of GB News are hilarious. Even funnier is their threat to cancel mobile phone contracts of operators who dare to advertise. Something about it, the mirthless hilarity, the pugilism that sounds a bit fragile, makes me nostalgic, not for a news culture of times past more for primary school.

Resistance, indignation, anxiety all these responses are understandable, but are they a good use of energy? The blank terror of the new channel assumes that it will have loads of viewers, without which it cant survive, let alone alter the discourse. I always lean towards the itll be fine view, which has lately mired me in a swamp of disappointment, but a few things, nonetheless, make me think this channel will always be niche the Spectator editor Fraser Nelsons prediction that it will find a way to broadcast the good news; Neils vow that it wont do Britain down at every turn. It would be facile to pretend there arent plenty of people whod like more pro-government boosterism on TV, but its like rightwing comedy. For all the people who claim to want it, nobody seems to actually watch it.

More importantly, opinions arent the enemy, falsity is: what makes the terrain of political discussion feel fogged and unstable? What opens up chasms between one side and another, so that they not only seem unbridgeable but obliterative, as if both sides, never mind compromise, cannot rest until the other is destroyed? It isnt conservatism or even bigotry; nor is it hypocrisy, hostility or a lack of humanity it is fake news, conspiracy theory, outright untruth.

While we used to lose weeks and months arguing about which facts could be admitted to any given debate, we have thanks in large part to the prime minister, as a politician and as a journalist entered a much darker phase, in which facts can be invented to meet the moment and later denied, dug in on or merely rendered irrelevant by some new fabrication. A really important, perhaps the most important, defence against a politics without memory or accountability is the internal critic of conservatism, the one who may agree with a premise but will not suffer a lie in its service.

I accept that there are some historical question marks over Neils judgment - it was under his editorship that the Sunday Times serialised a book by Michael Fumento, an American conservative, called The Myth of Heterosexual Aids. As late as 1996 he was questioning whether or not the link between HIV and Aids is as clear as mainstream research believes.

His record as a broadcaster has a different character. Neils self-fashioning is as an interviewer who derides and, moreover, tenaciously unearths mendacity, whatever its source. It is vital not to pre-cancel the mainstream right. When they start to flog fake news, they become a foe; until then, while they are grounded in reality and committed to accuracy, they are not lesser foes but allies.

Read more:

Is condemning GB News before it's started a good use of the left's energy? - The Guardian