The Internet has lots of simple tools for authenticating the sources of online literature. FILE PHOTO | NMG
The rise of fake news and propaganda on the Internet is undermining democracy and threatening peace worldwide. Rumours on Facebook were blamed for the recent ethnic strife in Ethiopia where 78 lives were lost.
Last month, Facebook removed hundreds of accounts, pages and groups in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia after they were found to have been created to deliberately mislead social media users.
Simply put, bad people are delegitimising good content on the Internet. Malicious content, which is prevalent in countries with deep religious and tribal divisions, is created to emotionally stir hatred and rally for action against the other side of the division.
What, then, do these sad trends mean for Kenya and its polarising politics? It will be recalled that during the post-election violence of 2007/2008 the use of social media was not virulent as it is now. We did not especially have WhatsApp, for if we did, real or fabricated images and stories would have been circulated with devastating consequences.
Although a general election is two years away, political temperatures are already rising online. The online “compunity”- for they do not behave like the real world community-is angry and restless.
The world of social media was not made for appreciating and applauding. There is a callous current underneath the keyboard that more often sweeps you towards criticism and scepticism.
The online mercenaries (or are they influencers), hired by politicians, profusely attack views that are unfavourable to their masters. There will be more fake twitter accounts purporting to belong to some authoritative or influential personality or institution.
Maliciously manipulated images and stories tend to target mainstream media- radio, TV and newspapers. Institutions that undertake performance ratings, such as opinion polls are often mimicked through websites that release fake results and reports in their names.
The creators of fake content will always try to find ways to legitimise their work.
There is a lot of stuff out there just meant to be satirical and to ridicule and amuse. But do we always get the joke? It is even worse with the Internet because we do not know the joker.
Whatever the intention, there is need to regulate and moderate online behaviour. First, we need to stop the lawlessness in social media.
The Ethiopian government is in the process of enacting a law to combat misinformation and hate speech. Kenya is also considering legislation on social media which, for example, includes a proposal to hold the administrator of WhatsApp group responsible for what is posted by the members of his or her group.
Enacting new laws for social media and the Internet has been met with some resistance because it is seen as over legislation and a curtailment of the freedom of speech. Those opposed to legislation must give alternative way to address the problem.
Second, we need to mitigate the impact of social media. Since laws, regulations and policies will not eliminate bad behaviour anywhere, the best and urgent approach is to educate people so that they don’t get harmed or unintentionally abet criminal activities by sharing harmful content.
The majority of a people are anyway law abiding. Public awareness and media literacy will help people to appreciate that computer software can be used to manipulate and steal someone’s identity.
A number of “breaking news” websites are created to look like trusted traditional news outlets, complete with stolen logos and branding. The good news is that the Internet has lots of simple tools for authenticating the sources of online literature.
You can easily fact-check a suspicious picture on what Google calls Reverse Image Search. Checking simple things like addresses, dates and names of authors can reveal a lot about veracity online content.
Media organisations have started training their staff and creating public awareness on fake news, in a bid to distinguish themselves from the fake world and to remain the trusted source of news.
Africa Check, an online data verification site, puts to test claims by politicians by providing existing data to help us agree or disagree with the claims.
Other institutions that support local capacity building initiatives to make Internet a safe and useful tool include the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the German Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation (KAS) and DW Akademie.
The government is a key stakeholder in the use of the Internet because it increasingly provides services on the online portal, e-Citizen. It must therefore invest in the building of public capacity for online engagement.
Andrew Limo communication professional.
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