If children and democratic societies are to tackle the problems associated with the fast-changing global communications world, media literacy skills are essential. Nowadays, finding information on an almost limitless number of issues is as easy as opening a browser on your computer or phone, identifying the issue about which you are seeking information, and waiting a second or two for a list of links to be displayed. At this point it is up to the individual to determine which of the links contain accurate, verifiable information, and which contain misleading or outright false information. Some of these determinations are easy. However, it is not unusual for purveyors of false information to cleverly disguise their intentions and deceptive content.
One of the greatest challenges for educators nowadays is trying to influence the manner in which students use information obtained from their cell phones and computers. These seemingly omnipresent devices are a major source information that influence what students believe to be interesting and useful information. Because students often are unable to recognize misleading websites, there is a good chance that the fake news contained therein may be shared with friends and/or be used to satisfy academic assignments. Obviously, it is in students’ best interests to be able to discern whether the information that they are about to transmit is verifiably true. According to award winning journalist Tom Friedman in his New York Times’ column of November 11, 2020, “. . . we need to require every K–12 school in America to include digital civics – how to determine and crosscheck if something you read on the internet is true – in their curriculum. You should not be able to graduate without it.”
Although it has always been a wise practice for consumers of news to approach the task with a degree of skepticism, the increase in the number of media outlets has made it necessary to find ways of determining the validity of the information obtained from the source. In other words, consumers must develop media literacy. Being able to detect false news has become a life and death matter with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors from around the U.S. report that many people’s beliefs about this disease and the appropriate treatment of it have been influenced by false information spread on the internet. Indeed, some doctors have been threatened because of their attempts to debunk the nonsense that people read online.
Given its vital role in serving the information needs of the Red Bank community, it is important for the Library to offer guidance to patrons about the evaluation of the information that they uncover while using its resources. This annotated bibliography is intended for both young and adult patrons. It is a one-stop source of information about the challenge of fake news, fact-checking sites, and material that will assist patrons to enhance their media literacy. In each case, hyperlinks are included that allow the patron to open the referenced sites.
Table of Contents
Part I: Definition of Terms
When people talk about fake news, they rely on a set of words that have become very important elements of the nation’s active vocabulary. Several of these words have been judged by lexicographers to be the most important in public discussion over the period of a year.
1. Disinformation - False information deliberately and often secretly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or hide the truth. False information which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media. It often serves to confuse, manipulate, brainwash, or gaslight. This is fake news.
2. Fake News - The printing and dissemination of spurious (bogus) information. Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead. It is false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news. (American Dialect Society, 2017 word of the year)
3. Infodemic - an excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable, spreads rapidly, and makes a solution more difficult to achieve. The term is used frequently in connection with all of the misinformation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Media Literacy - Media literacy is the ability to understand media text and evaluate media institutions, to create media of one’s own, and to understand and utilize the social and political influence of media in everyday life. Media literate youth and adults are better able to understand the complex messages we receive from television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, video games, music, and all other forms of media. Media literacy is necessary to deal with the complicated, ever-changing world of electronic and print sources of information.
5. Misinformation - False or inaccurate information that is simply wrong regardless of whether it is intentional or accidental, a genuine mistake or criminal stupidity.
6, Post-Truth – Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. In this era of post-truth politics, it’s easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire. Provides a rationale for why fake news has taken such a hold on the public. (Oxford Dictionary, 2016 word of the year)
7. Published Information - Something created to communicate with the public. The noun publication comes from the Latin word publicare, meaning “make public.” To publish is to present copies or audio recordings to a group of people for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display.
8. Truthiness – A sense that something seems or feels like it is true, even if it is not true. Truthiness occurs when you prefer concepts or facts that you wish to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. A wide range of motivations influence information seeking and information avoidance. Truthiness is believing something to be true based on one's intuition, opinion, or perception without regard to logic, factual evidence, or the like. There is a growing trend of truthiness as opposed to truth.
Part II: Articles on How to Spot Fake News
The items below represent only a tiny sample of the literature that has appeared to sound the alarm about fake news. The sources, however, are among the most trustworthy with respect to providing reliable information to the public. Each of the sources offer tips on how readers can determine whether spoken or written material is truthful.
1. Ideas for E.L.L.s: Finding Reliable Sources in a World of ‘Fake News’
New York Times, January 26, 2017. Teaching tips that train students to recognize fake news. The article contains many links to similarly useful information about spotting fake news.
2. Your Social Feed Is Crowded with Misinformation about Coronavirus. Here's How to Spot It.
USA Today, August 16, 2020. As opposed to most media literacy articles that present general principles applicable to spotting misinformation, this article’s focus is on identifying fake news specifically in Internet sources regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. No matter how much big tech companies and others pledge to contain this toxic spread, it’s up to the reader to actually use the 5 actions listed to spot misinformation about the outbreak.
3. Poynter Institute
The mission statement of the Poynter Institute declares that it “is a global leader in journalism as the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens in 21st Century democracies.”
A. The International Fact-Checking Network
The International Fact-Checking Network promotes excellence in fact-checking. The code of five principles were written to be used by organizations that regularly publish nonpartisan reports on the accuracy of statements made by public figures, major institutions, and other widely circulated claims of interest to society.
B. PunditFact
PunditFact is the fact-checking department of the Tampa Bay Times that examines the accuracy of articles written by newspaper columnists and statements of television commentators. The link contains a broadcast held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that offers an in-depth look at the impact of PunditFact's work and how the fact-checking of experts can improve, expand, and further help ensure an informed electorate.
4. How to Spot Fake News
FactCheck.org, November 18, 2016. Eight principles that can be used to determine the legitimacy of a published source of information. The description of each principle includes an example of fake news that was revealed because it violated the principle. A very nicely written, informative article. The following video illustrates the eight principles.
5. Veterans of the News Business are Now Fighting Fakes
New York Times, January 15, 2019. Instead of trying to evaluate the truthfulness of the endless stream of articles that appear on Internet websites, a new service, free to readers, rates news operations when a reader lands on its site. NewsGuard uses journalism to fight unreliable news. Trained analysts research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trustworthy--and which ones aren't. Green-Red ratings are used to signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda, giving readers more context about their online news. For example, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have received NewsGuard’s stamp of approval, whereas Breitbart, Infowars, and Daily Kos are less reliable sites.
6. Fake News & Misinformation: How to Spot and Verify
St. Louis community College Libraries, October 3, 2020. This guide provides tips, links to fact checking websites, and resources to help determine the truthfulness of the news you see, read, and hear about. The site also includes the infographic created by the International Federation of Library Associations that identifies eight simple steps to discover the verifiability of "news".
7. Ten Questions for Fake News Detection
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. “Yes” or “No” answers to these 10 questions about a news item are used to determine the likelihood that it is fake news.
8. What Tech Companies Are Doing to Control the Spread of Fake News
iTMunch, May 28, 2020. iTMunch,is an online source dealing with the latest tech news that focuses on examining how technology is constantly changing lives. Combating fake news has become a stated objective of major platforms like Google, YouTube, and Facebook. This article provides indications of the technical steps taken by these platforms to identify misinformation for persons who visit these platforms.
Part III: Fact-Checking Websites
The amount of misinformation that is spread regarding politics, government policies, religion, public health and a variety of hoaxes and scams is enormous. A number of websites have taken up the task of identifying rumors by presenting evidence and hard facts. As a background for using fact-checking sites, it is recommended that you read “About the Fact Checker” to understand the purposes, methods, and output of the Washington Post’s efforts to assess the truth of political statements. Below are introductions to four of the commonly acknowledged best sites that help you distinguish between the truth and falsehoods. Current information about these and other fact checking sites is available from the Berkeley Library at the University of California.
FactCheck.org
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters that examines the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players. Topics for fact checking are selected by the staff. There is a useful ‘Search’ link that allows users to find information about topics of interest to them. Importantly, the “Ask a Question’ link permits the user to submit a question about the truth of a claim and/or a question about a scientific matter.Snopes.com
This is a fact-checking site that is very popular among numerous news media. It was created to deny or confirm widely spread current stories or myths. Snopes also investigates Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or uncertain bases. Although fact-checking in general is often accused by critics as the product of a left-wing conspiracy, research has shown Snopes coverage to be free of bias. “Submit a Topic” permits the user to request information about a news item.USAFacts.org
USAFacts provides factual portraits of the American population, government finances, and government’s impact on society. It claims to be a non-partisan, not-for-profit civic enterprise that has no political agenda or commercial motive. Its findings rely exclusively on publicly available government data sources, and it partners with three academic institutions to help keep data accurate and unbiased. It is not always easy to locate the specific data in which you are interested.PolitiFact
PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials, candidates, leaders of political parties and political activists at all levels of government. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times. The site uses a six-point rating scale, the Truth-o-meter, to indicate the relative accuracy of a statement (e.g., ‘True’ → ‘Pants on Fire’). The website’s staff selects the statements that are checked for accuracy.
Part IV: Videos Dealing with Media Literacy
Rather than simply reading prepared text about fake news, the items below provide instructional video on the topic.
Post-Truth: Fake News and a New Era of Information Literacy
This is an ALA Webinar that addresses the rise of fake news, particularly those information behaviors that maintain its spread. There is a brief report on ways to identify fake news. The material is presented in a formal academic style that probably is not suited to younger library users. To watch the presentation, scroll down to “How to Register” and click on “Watch the recording” link.YouTube Tutorials for Evaluating Web Sites
Short presentations on sets of standards for determining the believability of websites.
A) Evaluating Websites
B) Evaluating Web Pages
Part V: Sources for Media Literacy Instruction in Schools
One of the greatest challenges for educators nowadays is trying to influence the manner in which students use information obtained from their cell phones and computers. These seemingly ever-present devices in the hands of young people not only distort the allocation of time they devote to necessary life activities, but the devices have a huge impact on what students believe to be legitimate information that can be used to satisfy academic assignments. As a result of concerns about the proliferation of fake news, a number of schools have incorporated classes intended to develop news literacy in their curricula. And none too soon given the findings of a study by the Stanford History Education Group that young people lacked basic skills to correctly evaluate digital content.
Media Literacy Now (MLN) is a nonprofit advocacy organization with a mission to ensure all K-12 students receive comprehensive media literacy education and skills. U.S. Media Literacy Policy Report 2020 is an MLN state-by-state survey of the status of media literacy education laws for K-12 schools. There are 14 leading states with some media literacy-related language on the books. Only two states, Florida and Ohio, have strong statutory language on media literacy.
To service the needs of schools for this type of training, a variety of organizations have created material specially designed to teach media literacy. Young people must learn the importance of questioning the legitimacy of material they uncover on various news sources and the media literacy skills required to make sound judgments about it. A sample of these teaching programs is presented below. As you familiarize yourself with these programs, keep in mind that there is some concern about the effectiveness of current approaches to this type of instruction
1. CheckologyTM
This set of highly appealing digital lessons and educational resources developed by the News Literacy Project is a promising way to learn about social media and digital citizenship. The platform features 10 core lessons that give students a foundation in news literacy, including a focus on the role of the First Amendment and watchdog journalism in a democracy, as well as the development of skills and ideas that help students determine how to know what to believe when presented with news and other information. The “freemium” model gives educators basic access at no cost, allowing them to deliver the lessons in a one-to-many format.
2. Mind Over Media
This site offers a comprehensive approach to recognizing propaganda and responding to it appropriately. The material is ideal for teachers in that it carefully structures the lessons by stating a rationale for the study of propaganda, identifying learning objectives, providing detailed lesson plans, and online teaching materials, including many videos portraying different examples of persuasion. Teachers are invited to submit examples of propaganda.
3. National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)
NAMLE is a leading voice, convener, and resource for media literacy education. It aims to make media literacy highly valued and widely practiced as an essential life skill. This Website should be explored given the wide range of content that will interest both teachers and students. Its Resources page should be explored to learn more about the organization and the specific issues that cannot be thoroughly understood without an appreciation of media literacy (e.g., How to Spot COVID-19 Misinformation). Teachers should examine NAMLE’s Core Principles of Media Literacy Education in the U.S. The principles are based on what scholars believe to be true about how people learn to think critically. It expands the boundaries of the field of media literacy to encompass not only what we teach but also how we teach. The Core Principles primarily addresses classroom teachers in the U.S.
4. BBC My World Media Literacy
Developed in partnership by BBC Learning, BBC World Services and Microsoft, this free educational platform for students ages 11-14 is intended to increase global media literacy. The site contains ten 45-minute lessons, each with a plan for activities and a companion video. Excellent site, although one has to get used to British speaking accents.
Part VI: Articles Written for Students
1. Fact Checking: How to Think Like a Journalist
Science News for Students, September 21, 2017. An essay that instructs students to “question everything” and “figure out who to trust.” Contains a glossary (titled “Power Words”) of terms associated with STEM subjects.
2. Kids Urged to Get Real on Fake News
KIDNEWS, August 16, 2020. This Australian article reports on the problems created by fake news and the appropriate responses to it. The two biggest threats are that children under the age of eight don’t have the ability to understand that people might post something just to trick them. Younger teens are likely to be influenced easily by celebrities used in fake stories. Using language that should be understandable to a young readership, seven steps are described to authenticate the story. A glossary, additional recommended articles, and a quiz are included.
3. Oakland Public Library
This site provides a worksheet that is useful for determining the legitimacy of a Website. Evaluating News: Good, Bad, Totally Fake? contains sets of questions that address the validity of the information on a Website and assess whether bias is present in the reporting. A useful tool for a student that intends to use the information on a particular Website as the centerpiece of a school assignment.
4. Misinfo Monday: How to Spot Misinformation Like the Pros
Moz://a, August 3, 2020. This is a brief and lively presentation by a veteran journalist about the steps that she uses to determine whether the information in a story can be trusted. These steps include doing a background check on the source of the story, double checking any numbers on which the story is based, and determining whether anyone is paying for the story.
Part VII: How Likely Are You to Believe Fake News?
We like to think of ourselves as shrewd observers of the world around us and capable of recognizing reliable sources of information with which to guide our lives. However, research has demonstrated clearly that there are a number of situational factors and personal characteristics that affect an individual’s ability to tell the difference between factual and inaccurate statements.
Given the seriousness of the effects of fake news on a host of political, economic, and educational forces in society, there has been an explosion of research on what causes people to believe false information. Below is a sampling of current research that identifies situational factors and personal characteristics, some of which may pertain to you, that are related to this ability to make sound judgments about the truthfulness of spoken and written information. Taken as a whole, these studies indicate that susceptibility to fake news is lessened by critical, reasoned thinking. Further, any factors that interfere with people’s use of careful reasoning (e.g., emotionality) makes them more likely to believe falsehoods.
Situational Factors
1. Researchers Examine When People Are More Susceptible to Fake News
National Public Radio, July 18, 2017. Simply being around other people seems to increase your propensity to believe in fake news. You assume that the person who's with you is going to do the fact check.
2. Some Real News About Fake News
The Atlantic, June 7, 2019. A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that political affiliation appears to be an important determinant of a person’s views concerning the seriousness and sources of fake news. Importantly, the emphasis on misinformation might actually run the risk of making people, especially conservatives, less well informed. The Pew study suggests that fake news may actually be increasing the process of polarization. Its driving consumers to drop some outlets, to simply consume less information overall, and even to abandon some social relationships. More than making people believe false things, the rise of fake news is making it less likely for people to consider sources of the truth.
3. The Science Behind Why Fake News Is So Hard to Wipe Out
Vox, October 31, 2017. Whenever a reader encounters a false story on Facebook, Google, or really anywhere, it makes a subtle impression. Each time that story is repeated, it grows more familiar. And that familiarity instills the illusion of truth. Unfortunately, once falsehoods are repeated, they are very hard to wipe out. Fortunately, most of the things we hear repeated over and over again are, indeed, true. And, truly outrageous statements like “the Earth is a square” rarely gain acceptance with repetition. But falsehoods can hijack this mental process as well.
4. The Spread of True and False News Online
Science, March 9, 2018. This investigation examined the spread of all of the verified true and false news stories distributed on Twitter from 2006 to 2017 (approximately 126,000 stories tweeted by approximately 3 million people more than 4.5 million times). False stories were circulated significantly farther, faster, and more broadly than the true stories in all categories of information. The spread of false political news was greater than the spread of false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information.
False news was more novel than true news, which suggests that people were more likely to share novel information. Robots accelerated the spread of true and false news at the same rate, implying that false news spreads more than the truth because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it.
Personal Characteristics
1. Why We Fall for Fake News: Hijacked Thinking or Laziness?
American Psychological Association, February 11, 2020. People who score higher on a reasoning test – designed to assess a person's ability to think logically and critically - were better able to distinguish fake headlines from real news headlines. This finding was supported even when the fake stories aligned with a person’s political preferences. Hence, people are more likely to believe misinformation because of lazy thinking than due to any conscious or subconscious desire to protect their political identities (Cognition, Vol. 188, No. 1, 2019). Further, when people take the time to think, they are better able to identify the truth, whether or not their political identity was consistent with the news (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Published online, 2020).
Nonetheless, a review of 51 experimental studies found that liberals and conservatives were both likely to evaluate information more favorably when it supported their own political beliefs (Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2018). However, political bias is more likely to have a greater impact when the misinformation pertains to controversial topics in which data can be interpreted in different ways. In these cases that are more ambiguous, people may have more wiggle room to convince themselves of the conclusion they are inclined to believe. On the other hand, bias seems to have less impact on reasoning when people are evaluating fake news stories that are blatantly inaccurate.
2. Cognitive Ability and Vulnerability to Fake News
Scientific American, February 6, 2018. Research on cognitive aging suggests that older adults may be especially vulnerable to fake news. On the other hand, more educated people may develop meta-cognitive skills—strategies for monitoring and regulating one’s own thinking—that can be used to reduce the effects of misinformation. Finally, when a claim is made to feel familiar through repetition, people tend to neglect their own knowledge base in rating the claim’s truthfulness.
3. Why We (Often) Believe Fake News
Psychology Today, March 31, 2017. People tend to perceive themselves as objective perceivers and thinkers with respect to both the social and physical worlds. So, when they hear or see something consistent with their beliefs, there is a tendency to believe it. Further, even when people admit to using biased sources, they still think they reach unbiased, objective conclusions. In sum, people overestimate their ability to determine the legitimacy of a news source, Further, they think that information that aligns with their existing beliefs - even if it is fake - is more credible than information that does not.
4. Older People Shared Fake News on Facebook More Than Others
New York Times, January 11, 2019. Report of a study of 3,500 people whose social media behavior was tracked during the 2016 election. The study found that older users of Facebook were more likely than other age groups to share fake news. Republicans and those who identified themselves as “very conservative” tended to share the most news from questionable sources. Importantly, only about 8.5 percent of Facebook users shared even one fake news link.
5. Why Do People Fall for Fake News?
New York Times, January 20, 2019. A review of research in the field of cognitive psychology suggests that people are not inclined to think critically about the information that they encounter. However, there appears to be agreement among scientists that a little bit of reasoning goes a long way toward forming accurate beliefs. These findings suggest that the main factor in explaining the acceptance of fake news could be cognitive laziness, especially in the context of social media, where headlines and news items often are merely glanced at or skimmed.
6. Reliance on Emotion Promotes Belief in Fake News
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, October 7, 2020. A wide range of specific emotions increased belief in fake news. However, greater emotionality did not affect belief in real news posts. Emotion may be actively and uniquely promoting heightened belief in fake news, and heightened reliance on emotion appears to be underlying susceptibility to fake news above and beyond a simple lack of reasoning. This suggests that causing people to become emotional may impair the ability to distinguish fake news from factual news.
7. A Short Review on Susceptibility to Falling for Fake Political News
Current Opinion in Psychology, December, 2020. Individuals tend to overrate the accuracy of true and fake political news that is consistent with their own political attitudes. This tendency, however, does not seem to be explained by motivated reasoning. Rather, individuals who rely on analytical thinking and deliberation are less susceptible to falling for fake news, regardless of whether the news is consistent or inconsistent with their political attitudes.
Both Situational Factors and Personal Characteristics
1. Susceptibility to Misinformation About COVID-19 Around the World
The Royal Society, October 14, 2020. Public belief in misinformation about COVID-19 is not particularly common. Misinformation about the coronavirus is seen as invalid by a large majority of participants in the five countries surveyed. Nonetheless, notable segments in all countries find specific misinformation claims believable (e.g., COVID-19 virus was created in a Wuhan, China laboratory). Further, U.S. participants in the study who were exposed to information about the virus on social media were more susceptible to misinformation.
Across all countries surveyed, higher trust in scientists and having higher numeracy skills (the ability to use numbers and solve problems in real life) were associated with lower susceptibility to coronavirus-related misinformation. Crucially, in all countries there was a clear link between susceptibility to misinformation and both vaccine hesitancy and a reduced likelihood of complying with public health guidance. Given the threat posed by misinformation to public health, interventions may be advisable that aim to improve critical thinking and trust in science.
Part VIII: International Concerns About Fake News
Fake news is not simply a problem affecting the United States. Rather, it is recognized as a threat to peoples, and especially democratic institutions, worldwide. The articles below report the responses of countries on different continents to the fact that important information sources are regularly contaminated by misinformation. It is significant to note that steps taken to prevent the publication of fake news are frequently considered threats to freedom of speech. This section concludes with an article about media literacy in Finland, a country with an acknowledged strong national program to enlighten its population about fake news.
1. Coming Together to Fight Fake News: Lessons from the European Approach to Disinformation
Center for Strategic & International Studies. Europe has been a testing ground for tactics to counter disinformation in democracies. The European Union’s (EU) response consists of three approaches. First, since disinformation is a problem with diverse and complicated roots, it requires cooperation between different agencies within states and internationally. The European Commission has proposed a unified, multi-stakeholder response to disinformation, including participation from governments, civil society, and the private sector.
Second, because private actors are the ones running the online platforms where disinformation campaigns launch and spread, the 2018 EU Code of Practice on Disinformation covers five areas that increase transparency and accountability of the online media landscape (including tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter).
Third, member states are called upon to strengthen media literacy by providing positive counter-narratives to disinformation campaigns. Improving media literacy—strengthening critical attitudes among citizens towards different sources of news—is another vital tool for an effective anti-disinformation strategy. These three approaches can serve as a model for anti-disinformation strategies in the U.S. and other countries.
2. A Guide to Anti-misinformation Actions Around the World
Poynter, November 14, 2020. Poynter created a guide for existing attempts to legislate against what can broadly be referred to as online misinformation. Importantly, because these efforts seem to be announced weekly, this site will be updated on an ongoing basis. For each of 52 countries worldwide, the action taken to deal with misinformation and its focus are reported. The varied actions may include introduction or passage of legislation, arrests of journalists, and creation of government task forces or fact-checking sites. The focus of these actions typically is identified by the general term misinformation, although in some cases more specific language is used (e.g., foreign disinformation campaigns, media or internet regulation, or media literacy).
3. Government Responses to Disinformation on Social Media Platforms: Comparative Summary
Law Library, Library of Congress, July 24, 2020. This report is composed of individual surveys of the European Union (EU) and fifteen selected countries from around the globe. It addresses instances of alleged disinformation, including reports of online distribution of disinformation initiated by both foreign and domestic sources.
The report also highlights a variety of governmental responses to challenges posed by the spread of disinformation on social media platforms. For example, the EU and many other countries have entered into agreements with online media platforms to cooperate in preventing the spread of disinformation. Further, some countries (e.g., France and Israel) have adopted cybersecurity measures to protect governmental computerized systems and software applications against communications containing threats to national security. In authoritarian nations (e.g., Russia, China, and Egypt), mandatory requirements for transparency and accountability take the form of licensing and ongoing monitoring. In contrast to countries with high-levels of media control, other surveyed nations imposed varied levels of transparency requirements for online communications on social platforms that usually were limited to political ads during periods of electoral campaigns.
Finally, a few governments (e.g., Denmark and Germany) promote the blockage or removal of posts that contain abhorrent violent material or promote rioting, hatred, racism, sectarianism, or damage to or disturbances of the public order. Noteworthy among various governmental responses (e.g., Denmark and Canada) to control the spread of misinformation are criminal sanctions and penalties extending to imprisonment and fines. Penalties may be imposed for offenses involving the spread of misinformation to further unlawful objectives such as defamation, hate speech, terrorism, or incitement to violence, or the publication of abhorrent violent material.
4. Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy
CNN. Finland’s government in 2014 began teaching residents, students, journalists and politicians how to counter false information designed to sow division. Finland, a country with a long tradition of reading, was found to be the country with the greatest “resilience” to fake news. The article includes an excellent video summarizing efforts to increase the media literacy of its population, a story told in part by Finnish students. Perhaps the best sign that Finland is winning the war on fake news is the fact that representatives from a number of EU states, along with Singapore, have come to learn from Finland’s approach to the problem.