Fake news isn’t just Facebook’s problem. Have we become gullible news readers?

Fake news is top of the agenda for many governments around the world, but are the social media giants being made a bit of a scapegoat for this? When did we start to believe everything we read?

Ahead of the General Election in the UK, Facebook has launched an initiative to raise awareness about fake news, taking out adverts in various publications in what is perhaps an indirect move to combat potential fines it could face for its role as content curator. The ads list a number of points to look out for in content published on the site which could indicate the story itself is a bit dodgy.

While the prospect of a General Election in the UK would make the country more sensitive to fake news, Britain is just one of a number of countries who are attempting the tackle the issues raised. Germany is perhaps the posterchild of the battle after passing legislation last month enabling it to fine social media sites with substantial sums should fake content not be removed within a suitable time period.

This is a fair move. Facebook should be held accountable for the content which it feeds to the masses, but perhaps another important question to ask is ‘when did we become so gullible’?

Prior to the rise of the digital economy, news was always looked at with a sense of scepticism. ‘Never believe everything you read in the papers’ was a common phrase, and during your correspondents time at university, Wikipedia was banned as a source because it simply wasn’t reliable. Somewhere along the line of impatience and convenience, which the digital era promises and delivers, consumers have forgotten the basic principles of fact checking; since when do we take everything as gospel?

The result of a tidal wave of information has been a knee-jerk reaction from governments around the world, which perhaps still operate in the analogue era. In years gone-by, the primary source of information was newspapers. These newspapers had staff writers who were accountable to editors. These editors had reputations to maintain and therefore you could rely (for the most part) on what was presented in the media.

But the internet has democratized the creation and consumption of media. New writers, who are accountable to no-one, have emerged. As long as you have a laptop and a Facebook account, you have a platform to broadcast whatever you want to say; irrelevant of what it is, and how much truth there is in the matter. It’s the power and the danger of social media.

The digital era has fed the idea of crowdsourcing information, and governments need to ensure that their own activities reflect this change. Fining the social media giants is a short-sighted means to tackle the issue as it doesn’t deal with the problem; why not educate the consumer to ensure we can recognise fake news, but also realize the consequences of believing it.

So yes, platforms like Facebook have a responsibility to ensure the relevant and reliable content is being broadcast to the masses. But at the same time, we have a responsibility to make sure we don’t believe everything we read.