Who’s Responsible for Fake News and How Should it be Fixed?

Freedom of the press is a right every American holds as it is specifically outlined in the

First Amendment of the Constitution. While everyone might be able to speak and write as they

please, it is necessary to remember that there are potential consequences for any words or

phrases that are threatening or incite certain emotions. In today’s society where news can spread

as quickly as someone can hit a “share” button, it is important to ensure what is being shared is

truthful and accurate. With so much uncertainty regarding the validity of news articles found on

social media, it is becoming increasingly evident that changes need to be made in order to protect

our Democracy, but while still holding true to the values presented by America’s Founding

Fathers. Facebook, the world’s leading social media website with over 2.8 billion users, realized

it needed to make changes to its algorithms following the 2016 presidential election. “Facebook

said [in 2016] that it had begun a series of experiments to limit misinformation on its site,”

(Isaac). When considering the vast amount of misinformation that is published each day, it begs

the question “Who should be responsible for the spread of fake news?” The purpose of this essay

focuses on fake news in the realm of social media, rather than traditional news sources from

credible outlets. A key aspect to remember is that “the world of cyberspace is filled with many

views of reality -- many of them designed to distract us or to control and dictate our public

behavior rather than inform our independent public judgment,” as noted by the Pew Research

Center in their article “A New Journalism for Democracy in a New Age.” With that in mind,

every person involved in the distribution of fake news bears some responsibility for its contents,

although some individuals and corporations are more to blame than others.

Fake news and misinformation in general is nothing new as it has been a prevalent issue

going “as far back as the birth of the free press” as noted by Jackie Mansky of the Smithsonian
Magazine (Manksy). As defined by Claire Liu of Cornell University, fake news is “factually

inaccurate news articles, spread online [or by other methods] through mass media and social

networks with the assistance of advertisement generators, and unknowing readers,” (Liu). In his

personal copy of Concorcet’s Outlines of a Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind,

President John Adams argued against Concorcet’s belief that a “free press would advance

knowledge and create a more informed public.” President Adams stated that “There has been

more new error propagated by the press in the last ten years than in a hundred years before

1798.” While the validity of the scale President Adams suggested is unable to be verified, the

sentiment in his note is still relevant to this day. Mansky continues by arguing that “when

something like the truth is up for debate, the door is open for bad-faith actors to promulgate

falsehoods -- something that a reader today might call ‘fake news,’” (Mansky).

One of the most prominent examples of fake news in modern history was the propaganda

pushed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime during World War II. In a New York Times article

written by Timothy Snyder, the author asserts that Hitler pioneered fake news. Snyder explains

that “The form of his propaganda was inextricable from its content: the fictionalization of a

globalized world into simple slogans, to be repeated until an enemy [people of Jewish religion]

thus defined was exterminated,” (Snyder). Throughout his career, Hitler grew to power by

speaking “in an exceedingly skillful way” which framed Jewish people as an injustice to

Germany, enabling him to gain popularity with the country. Similar to how former President

Donald Trump called out certain news articles or publishers as “fake news,” Hitler and the Nazis

coined the term “Lügenpresse” to discredit reporters who disagreed with him. Oddly enough,

“Lügenpresse” loosely translates to fake news in English.

 While fake news and misinformation have been an ongoing issue throughout the globe, in

recent years it has been at the forefront of many people’s minds as a problem that needs to be

addressed. Claire Liu explains in her article “Responsibility, Overconfidence, and intervention

Efforts in the Age of Fake News” that “while some remark that fake news is nothing new, fake

news in the modern socio-political moment, accompanied and strengthened by the rapidly

globalizing and technologizing landscapes, is indeed something new,” (Liu). On the same note,

Karina Shyrokykh of Ericsson, a Swedish communications company, states that “printed media

like newspapers and journals build relationships with their readers based on reputation. They

establish this reputation by carefully checking information before publishing it. On social media,

however, there are no editors which allow all kinds of content to spread without control,”

(Shyrokykh). These statements are significant because they emphasize that although fake news

has been around for centuries, society today is experiencing more severe side effects of

misinformation as a result of how fast the information can spread.

During the summer of 2017, Liu conducted research on the topic of fake news and the

results of the surveys are rather telling. Two main findings of her research are that “there is

evidence that American people do want media and technology corporations held accountable

when they facilitate the spread of deceptive news,” and that “overconfidence effects are at play.

Americans, on the individual level, do not believe that they themselves are especially vulnerable

to fake news,” (Liu). These excerpts from Liu’s research showcase that Americans believe the

news and social media sites should be responsible for allowing misinformation to spread, but

also explains that Americans believe that they themselves are not susceptible to believing fake

news. The overconfidence aspect of Liu’s research comes to light from the second finding, as it

illustrates Americans’ inability to accept that they might fall victim to spreading misinformation.
 On the topic of responsibility, there has been a significant amount of debate regarding

who should be held accountable for allowing the spread of fake news. One on hand, many critics

argue that placing the sole responsibility on social networks would turn them into the “thought

police.” As explained by Nicholas Lemann of The New Yorker, Facebook, which is a “relatively

new private company and isn’t in journalism, [would] become the dominant provider of

journalism to the public,” (Lehmann). But on the other hand, some say that not enough is being

done on their part. Kerry Fields, a professor of business law and ethics at the USC Marshall

School of Business, asserts the following:

Fake news threatens our confidence in the notions of one nation and the ability of public

institutions to respond to societal needs. We do not need another law to address fake

news. Instead, internet service providers and news organizations should observe their

ethical obligations -- that is, going beyond what they are compelled to do by law and

instead do what they ‘should do’ … They can be no different from the broadcast

standards and practices of the television networks (Chaffee).

The last sentence of Field’s statement is important to remember, as Liu’s research found that up

to sixty percent of Americans get their news from Facebook. If over half of the entire country is

getting their news from social media, it begs the question as to why these websites are not held to

the same ethical standards that traditional news outlets are. Gabriel Kahn, the Director of the

Future of Journalism at the Annenberg Innovation Lab, was quoted on his beliefs of who bears

responsibility. Kahn said that “Facebook and other platforms bear enormous responsibility here.

A supermarket doesn’t stock fake milk on its shelves, so the largest distributor of news shouldn’t

be complicit in pushing erroneous information with no filter … We need a new type of civics

education that teaches media literacy … It has massive implications for our democracy,”
(Chaffee). Kahn’s perspective is equally important as Fields’, as they both emphasize the

significance of the impact that social media has on society and how it operates. In an ideal world,

social media users would do their own due diligence by fact-checking articles before sharing, but

since many of the articles containing misinformation are filled with sensationalist ideas, common

sense tends to get put aside. Additionally, since Facebook and other sites have the manpower and

expertise to filter out disputed facts and articles, the majority of the responsibility should be

placed on the technology companies instead of the end-users.

In sum, the responsibility for the spread of fake news and misinformation lies heavily on

the platforms that allow for the spread of said information. As previously stated, Facebook began

implementing independent fact-checkers to help slow the spread of misinformation on the site.

Additionally, both Twitter and Facebook have begun permanently banning users who not only

spread fake news, but also incite violence resulting from the fictitious information. While these

actions have helped limit the adverse effects of fake news, there is still a great deal of work left

to be done regarding the topic.

 Works Cited

Chaffee, Ian. “Who’s to Blame for Fake News and What Can Be Done About It?” USC

News, 15 Feb. 2018, news.usc.edu/113738/whos-to-blame-for-fake-news-and-

what-can-be-done-about-it.

Isaac, Mike. “Facebook Mounts Effort to Limit Tide of Fake News.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 15 Dec. 2016,

www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/technology/facebook-fake-news.html.

Lemann, Nicholas. “Solving the Problem of Fake News.” The New Yorker, 19 June 2017,

www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/solving-the-problem-of-fake-news.

Liu, Claire. “Responsibility, Overconfidence, & Intervention Efforts in the Age of Fake

News.” Roper Center at Cornell University, 2017,

ropercenter.cornell.edu/responsibility-overconfidence-intervention-efforts-age-

fake-news.

Mansky, Jackie. “The Age-Old Problem of ‘Fake News.’” Smithsonian Magazine,

Smithsonian Magazine, 7 May 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/age-old-

problem-fake-news-180968945.

Pew Research Center. “A New Journalism for Democracy in a New Age.” Pew Research

Center’s Journalism Project, 1 Feb. 2005, www.journalism.org/2005/02/01/a-

new-journalism-for-democracy-in-a-new-age.

Shyrokykh, Karina. “Fake News on Social Media: Whose Responsibility Is It?”

Ericsson.Com, 5 Nov. 2018, www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2018/11/fake-news-on-

social-media-whose-responsibility-is-it.
Snyder, Timothy. “How Hitler Pioneered ‘Fake News.’” The New York Times, The New

York Times, 16 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/opinion/hitler-speech-

1919.html.