Emerging distribution of fake news on Social media platforms and the

necessary sanction

People nowadays spend most of their time on social media platforms. In

fact, Statista Research Department and Philippine Information Agency and

numerous studies ranks Philippines as the Social Media Capital in the world with

over 57.9 million users. With the first recognizable social media site which started

in 1997 and 23 years after its establishment, more and more people rely on this

massive innovation in communication to send and receive messages from across

the country. People also use social media to aid their daily life as one can shop,

know the weather and read news using social media platforms. As of 2019, 3.484

billion people worldwide uses social media and Remarkable statistics also shows

that 62% of adults who use social media relies on it to read the news. According to

a 2019 survey, 21% of adult Filipinos, or an estimated 13.9 million, consume news

daily through Facebook. (Cabico, 2019)

Even news outlets nowadays rely on social media to disseminate news. This

is why many choose to take advantage of today’s digital era to spread fake news.

Fake news or false information is news, stories or hoaxes created to manipulate

and misinform people. It is also considered an oxymoron since news positively

means a series of information to inform people and mold their attitude and actions
towards the information. And ‘Fake’ degrades the definition of the news by it

being deceiving and often malicious.

Many people read their news on social media platforms, and many

encounters the prevalent fake news. Eighty-six percent of the Internet users fall for

fake news. (Anonymous, 2019). Since many people read their news from

Facebook, a startling survey was done to see the percentage of Facebook users in

the Philippines. The 2019 survey stated that 99% of the internet users uses

Facebook. On the same 2019 study, Respondents said they want both governments

and social media companies to crack down on these activities, which are

contributing to a growing distrust of the internet as well as negatively impacting

economies and political discourse. This study also highlighted the social and

political impact of this as thirty-one percent uses social media to promote social,

or political issues, 5% or 1.5 million people use it to re-post insights or thoughts

regarding political candidates and national issues. (“SWS:Facebook next to

TV”, 2019)

Fake news is rumors or hoaxes created to misinform or mislead readers

intentionally. These articles are usually produced to change the opinions of people.

Fake news can deceive readers' mind by looking like a reliable website. According

to Morgan (2018), what is happening to the online public sphere is complex. First,

disinformation and fake news are widespread, and those seeking to manipulate the

online public sphere can capitalize on declining levels of trust in institutions and
experts. There are different motivations for the types of propaganda and ‘fake

news’ we are seeing. (p. 2) Some use it as an attempt to spread false information

or sow doubt in people’s mind.

On a national political level, social media platforms and fake news affects

us in many ways than one. Duterte’s election to the presidency in 2016 was a

victory enabled, at least in part, by social media. Lawfare institute stated that

Fake news stand in the way of Filipinos’ access to an online experience free from

manipulation. In the study entitled Architects of Network Disinformation, the May

2016 Philippine elections was reported to be filled with toxic incivility in the

online political discourse. A lot is at stake with the current phenomenon since fake

news or false information on social media platform sways people’s opinions and

insights regarding important social and political issues. For instance, in 2017

according to Pulse Asia, 39% of Filipinos who used social media said they

changed their views on politics, and the government because of it. In 2018, 51%

who used social media said their political opinions have been swayed by it.

Therefore, necessary and practical sanctions must be imposed to decrease

and later on eradicate permanently the dissemination of fake news. Although there

are various tools in disseminating these false information such as bots or trolls

which play an important role in the amplification of false information and fake

news, the roots of these agents are still traceable especially with the use of high
technology IP-tracer which will allow companies and even the government to

know who is behind the spread of fake news. Until now, there are no laws in the

Philippines that aims to sanction or impose penalties to the disseminators of fake

news. Social Media companies such as Facebook took a great stride in sanctioning

the disseminators of the fake news. According to Klein & Wueller (2017), United

States are also expected to implement the fact-checking network as similar to

France and Germany to self-report suspected fake news publications. Through this

fact-checking partners, fake news are tagged as such across the social media

platform and punished in users' news feed, by this it can prevent the content from

spreading.

Since social media companies and platforms are acting upon this issue in

decreasing the occurrence of fake news in their platforms, this study pushes the

government to act and start sanctioning fake news publishers as an ultimately

effective method of decreasing them and stopping altogether. Indeed, fact-

checking and providing proper education to internet users to fact-check first before

believing an information they came across with, is effective in the sense that it

decreases those who fall for fake news but doesn’t discourage those who

disseminate it per se. Many websites can be twisted or created to look believable

to people. Hence, destroying the purpose of the knowledge to fact-check.

Sanctioning the root of these manipulative information is necessary to invoke fear

and discourage people who do it voluntarily for money. The effectiveness of

penalties to the human behavior is said to significant.

A study by Klein & Wueller (2017), talks about the legal perspective of

fake news. Except for further studies sanctioning fake new shared out of neglect or

lack of reliable source. This study is limited with the spread of false information

through posts, graphics, videos, and articles. This study define “fake news” as the

online publication of intentionally or knowingly false statements of fact. It also

highlights that the definition of fake news is made different by public figures who

find news about them unflattering even if its truth. Another important perspective

one should look into is the study of Papanastasiou (2020). The study tackled the

social media platform inspection problems and the impact or effectiveness of the

platform’s policy.

In the study by Klein and Wueller (2017), in-depth study of defamation and

its connection to fake news, intellectual property violations, government regulation

and criminal concerns, the trend of deregulation and cyberbullying was done. As it

stated by Papanastasiou (2020), his study differs from the others because of its

effectiveness, in such a way that it lessens the harmful impact of fake news and

spreading of it. It simply means that the platform policies' effective when the

rewards collected from content sharing are low relative to the penalties it benefited

from the sharing of fake news.

 The previous studies differ from these one because they are vast umbrella

of subtopic. How “fake news” was defined in their study is similar to this study,

however, this study does not cover defamation, platforms policy and effectiveness,

and how it is defined as a case to case basis. Previous studies are similar in

this study when it comes to tackling about plausibility, advantages, ways of

determining the truth value of an information, necessity of sanctioning

the disseminators and the sociopolitical impact of penalizing the said act.

The “Emerging Issues in the Distribution of Fake News” using variety of

social media platforms tends to explain the relevance of the participation of

communication and how the response of the new technologies further affects lives

and humanities. In a rapid increasing interconnected world of communication, the

need of assessing the factuality and credibility of a certain news or information

will give the public trust and resiliency. According to Grunes, 2017, the

phenomenon of ‘fake news’ is a leading example of how open and transparent

forms of communication, propagated by innovative technologies can influence

public consciousness, trust and resilience.

However, fake news can also be initiated or spread out of ignorance or

without malice. But regardless of its creation and emergence to the public sphere,

it is somebody’s responsibility and accountability. That is why we should not to

get too carried away in this booming technologies breakthrough. There’s should

always be a thorough study and carefulness of how it is used.

 Another, instead of focusing on the falsity of the information, we could

approach fake news into a broader perspective, by engaging in interdisciplinary

and focusing the strengthening and application of preventative measures and

legal guidelines, (i.e., changing roles and responsibilities of social media

companies, notably Instagram, Facebook and Twitter). Considering these

participatory platforms which are designed to prioritized or reduce the spread of

misinformation as well as to eradicate deliberate and intentional untruths and not

use in the mitigation of fake news.

Public should always consider the innovation of new technologies and

systems as an integral aspect to learn how it should be implemented in a public

space.

It is said that in this digital age, data is the most important commodity. As a

part of the modernized era, liberality are now become our traits and

allowing "fake" may become the first objective truth. And by allowing the subject

of "fake" it contradicts the public interest and triggers conflict. Sanctioning

the disseminators of fake news will prevent more to come and will discourage

future publishers to do it for money or to defame someone. Along with a law to

penalize the disseminators of these information, it is also vital to categorize news

as fake, fact-checking to know if the source is credible, and the laws (if any) that is

applied for those who creates this false information voluntarily and spread them

for the purpose of manipulation, unnecessary panic, and misinformation.

 Internet and social media are indeed become such a powerful tool. But,

don't forget that we are the ones who operate it. We might have freedom to do

whatever we want using the internet, but we must remind ourselves to be mindful

and responsible enough with it. One good thing about the Internet is that it helps

promote freedom of speech and integrates verbal communication. But of course,

this should be exercised responsibly. And this sense of responsibility should be

comes to the users.

References

Anonymous (2019). 86% of Net Users fall for fake news. Philippine Daily

Inquirer. Retrieved from https://technology.inquirer.net/ fake-news

Cabanes, J. & Ong, J. (2018). Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and fake news

production in the Philippines. Architects of Network Disinformation. Retrieved

from https://newtontechfordev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ARCHITECTS-

OF-NETWORKED-DISINFORMATION-FULL-REPORT.pdf

Cabico, G.K. (2019). SWS: More Filipinos get news from Facebook than from

radio, Newspapers. Philstar Global. Retrieved from

https://www.philstar.com/headlines
Grunes, A. P. (2017). The phenomenon of 'fake news'. Retrieved from

https://www.gsdm.global/2018/12/21/the-impact-of-fake-news/

Klein, D. & Wueller, J. (2017). Fake news: A legal Perspective. Journal of Internet

Law. 20 (10). Retrived from https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?

Morgan, S. (2018). Fake news, disinformation, manipulation and online tactics to

undermine democracy. Journal of Cyber Policy. 3 (1), 41. Retrieved from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23738871.2018.1462395

Oulamine I., Mihm, H. & Singer, F. (2019). The Philippines Deserves More From

Facebook. Lawfare. Institute. Retrived from https://www.lawfare.com/philippines-

deserves-more-facebook

Papanastasiou, Y. (2020, Jan 23). Fake News Propagation and Detection: A

Sequential Model. Management Science Journal. Retrieved from

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3295
Pulse Asia (2019, Feb 1). More Filipinos aware of fake news on social media.

Rappler Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/214035-

filipinos-awareness-fake-news-social-media-pulseasia-survey-september-2018

SWS: Facebook next to TV as Filipinos' top source of news (2019, June 30). CNN

Philippines. Retrieved from

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/6/30/facebook-news-source-filipino-

adults.html