Ethics and Online Fake News
After reviewing the Study Materials for this module on free speech, trolls, and disinformation campaigns, consider your own experience online. Have you or someone you know ever had an experience with challenging online phenomena like trolling, cyber-hate speech, or disinformation campaigns? Who do you think should be responsible for overseeing the web—individuals, online communities, corporations, governments, or international coalitions?
Choose one of the themes discussed in The Future of Free Speech,Trolls, Anonymity, and Fake News Online and, develop a policy to address the issues raised by your selected theme. Discuss steps that individuals, online communities, scholars, corporations, governments, and/or international coalitions can take to successfully address the issues. Support your analysis with one or more of the ethical frameworks (utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, social justice and social contract theory). Use properly cited evidence from the Study Materials to support your points.
Readings and video:
1. Digital Media Law Project. (2019). http://www(dot)dmlp(dot)org/legal-guide/fair-use
2. Burgess, M. (2017, August 22). https://www(dot)wired(dot)co(dot)uk/article/hate-speech-online-fines-regulation-germany
3. Rainie, L., Anderson, J., & Albright, J. (2017, March 29). http://www(dot)elon(dot)edu/docs/e-web/imagining/surveys/2016_survey/Pew%20and%20Elon%20University%20Trolls%20Fake%20News%20Report%20Future%20of%20Internet%203.29.17.pdf
4. United Nations Human Rights Council. (2018). https://freedex(dot)org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2015/files/2018/05/G1809672.pdf
5. Polyakova, A. (2018, October 3). https://www(dot)brookings(dot)edu/blog/brookings-now/2018/10/03/what-do-russian-disinformation-campaigns-look-like-and-how-can-we-protect-our-elections/
6. Center for Strategic and International Studies. (2018, September 10). https://youtu(dot)be/bApRkWDPJNA
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Fake News Online
Fake news is news that consists of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread through social media platforms or traditional news media. They are also referred to as pseudo-news or junk news. Fake news lack authenticity and are not realistic. Fake news results in a decline of public trust and confidence in the news media. This is always dangerous for democratic nations. Fake news can also result in civil wars among communities because of the misleading information passed by the news media. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that fake news is not spread. However, there are several policies that can be put in place in order to combat the spread of fake news and any kind of disinformation.
Combating Fake News
One of the policies that can be set to curb the propagation of fake news is ensuring that news media encourage and support independent and professional journalism. These journalists will help make sense of complicated and ambiguous social, political, and economic issues. This will help to minimize the propagation of fake news on social media platforms or the traditional news media (West, 2017). Professional journalists will always provide and create authentic news based on facts collected from the public or appropriate sources. They will also provide news whose purpose is to create awareness in the public or highlighting demands of the public in pursuit of justice. In addition to this policy, individuals should familiarise themselves with how to detect fake news by developing a critical mind-set. This is done by asking several questions, such as what was the perspective of the writer? Why was the story written? How does the story affect me? And many other questions.
These questions help to determine the outcomes of news written online; this brings the idea of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a theory that determines right from wrong by examining the outcomes (Abumare, 2020). Utilitarianism theory should be propagated in society to enable people to reason and think about the consequences of purporting fake news. This is because it is clear th...
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