With elections coming up and Rodrigo Duterte’s incarceration at the Hague sending his rabid supporters into overdrive, expect a deluge of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation to barrel down our way in the coming months as politicians and their dynasties fight for survival or dominance.
The arrest of Duterte accelerated the return of fake news factories, as within hours of his being taken to the International Criminal Court, all sorts of misinformation was already being spread on the internet by people or “influencers” who don’t even bother to familiarize themselves with any of the facts of the case and the nuances of international law.
Another interesting development was the rise of fake quotes from fictional lawyers such as Saul Goodman of “Better Call Saul” and Elle Woods of “Legally Blonde”, giving some sort of “legal opinion” over Duterte’s arrest. These quotes, which came complete with photo, fictional name, and fictional credentials, were gobbled up by the gullible, shared and peppered with comments thanking them for their service.
What made those fake quotes interesting is that I suspect they were spread by those who wanted to make a point of showing how gullible some people can be. After all, you have to admit that it is funny to see someone believing in the fake quotes and legal opinion of an imaginary character, swallowing it, hook, line, and sinker, and then even sharing it on social media and posting comments.
However, the sheer volume of the gullible, along with those who were enjoying the show, made those fake quote cards viral, which had the drawback of extending the reach and engagement of posts that were obviously fake. What happened instead was that while some got a few laughs from it, thousands, if not millions others, were given one more reason to believe the narrative that their fake news bubble was feeding them. In other words, the joke was funny but it also backfired because it didn’t take into account critical thinking.
The awesome power of fake news is such that even if you can craft a funny or witty joke that exposes the gullibility of a crowd, they indiscriminately gobble up so much fake stuff that everything that supports their worldview is the truth for them. It doesn’t matter if Elle Woods is fictional when they don’t bother to counter check the facts. What matters for them is that an American lawyer who suspiciously looks like the actor Reese Witherspoon stood up for Tatay Digong during his darkest hour because he is the best president in their universe. Whether the made up infographic is based on facts or not, that is their truth and there isn’t much anyone else can do about it.
Aside from the return of the Dutertesphere, which just proved that it is still a major force in the fake news department, there is also the upcoming elections and with it come all the lowdown tricks that today’s politicos are willing to play just to get an advantage. These mostly involve fake news, misinformation, disinformation, ultimately backed up by the misuse and abuse of state resources to buy votes.
Given that so much information will be passed around in the next few months, it would be best to treat everything with skepticism, especially if the sources are not credible. This means double checking even those that come from supposedly legitimate sources, such as traditional media, as aside from obviously fake news, there is even information that pretends to be real news but is still fake. This mostly applies to official looking posts or infographics being passed around. It’s just so hard to trust anything being passed around on social media or group chats these days.
That is why traditional media outlets are important, because they fact check and have systems of accountability to ensure that the information they deliver is as factual and accurate as possible. News is news, opinions are opinions, and although advertorials have a tendency to creep in, paid advertisements are properly marked as such. It’s not perfect, and being run by humans, mistakes happen and biases are unavoidable, but the mission and vision is to provide real news. That is a world of difference from vloggers and influencers who have neither mission nor vision and are just out there to make a quick buck at the expense of their audience. The intent is to manipulate their audience and drive engagement for the money and clout more than anything else.
A government that consistently defends its people from fake news would be ideal. But as the USA under Donald Trump has shown, a government that has no qualms about lying can make up its own facts and its own version of history.
The art and science of critical thinking and fact checking is going to be one of the most important skills in the coming age. Older people are going to have a tough time sifting through facts and non-facts, especially if they get their information online. For the younger generation, we can only hope that they know better, and can leverage the same technology that is spreading the misinformation and disinformation to help them tell facts from lies. Hopefully they won’t be as gullible as we are right now.*
