"False news is intended to cause harm"
"False news is intended to cause harm"
The electoral period began and, with this, also the proliferation of false news or "fake news" that invade social networks in order to attack or discredit opponents politicians.
The impact of information on social networks is exploited in electoral times to spread news, often false, against opponents.
In Cuenca have increased the information accounts on social networks and false profiles where news is disseminated that seek to demean people, as explained by Jorge Piedra, communicator and decent Radio and Ethics and Communication Legislation of the University of Azuay.
Stone and the second year students of Social Communication started the "Cuy de la verdad" project where, through research, he denies these publications in order to prevail the truth.
Each student has a role. They seek information from the published data and when they verify that they are false, they publish them on social networks.
The student Elisa Alemán, who is part of the team, explained that the response from the fans is exciting and that this exercise has allowed them to get involved in the political issue. In addition, it gives you an overview of what the 2019 elections will be like.
The working group is considered apolitical and according to Alemán, that has allowed them to realize that in many "trolls" or accounts there is a marked bias towards certain candidates.
Piedra reveals the role played by false news or also known as "fake news" in election times.
Q. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF FALSE NEWS IN THE ELECTORAL ERA?
R. False news is spreading through the Internet, especially through social networks and WhatsApp. That is the scenario that we will have to face as communicators in the next elections. This initiative (Cuy de la verdad) was born precisely to denounce these false news.
Q. WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE THROUGH THE PUBLICATIONS?
R. In the electoral process, because that's what it's about, you win the elections. They do it through demeaning, of creating falsehoods against rivals. That is the main reason for the false news.
Q. WHAT KIND OF CONTENTS ARE USED?
R. False news is going to win elections, when we are dealing specifically with this issue. When we are not in the electoral season, it is to demean the political rivals or the people who are in power. There also enter personal matters that can be invented or personal matters that should not deserve the opinion.
Q. AND WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THESE NEWS ON CITIZENSHIP?
R. The impact is great, because it should be noted that the vast majority of citizens who manage social networks do not exercise on whether this is true or not, they simply start to believe what they want. Spend a bit like "I believe what I want". That is, if I like someone, I am a bit of the right and they show me something against someone from the left, because I believe, because I feel that this reaffirms my political personality. You might even think "it could be a lie", but "good". And we want to denounce this. And when they are lies you have to say them. There are no half lies, there is not a little bit of lies. All are lies because false news or "fake news" have a very clear component, which is the bad intention to cause harm. It is not an error, it is a bad intention to cause damage.
Q. BUT IS THERE AN ALL INFORMATION COMPONENT THAT LEADS TO THE READERS TO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE CERTAIN?
R. What leads to unmasking the false news is an investigation. There are some cases that are quick, others that deserve more investigation and others that do not even end up being published because, if there is a doubt however minimal, we do not publish it. That is a rule that we have imposed. We prefer to publish little, but that is good (in the Cuy of the truth).
Q. IS THERE A CITIZENSHIP CORRESPONDABILITY?
R. I think the battle is there. We must wait for people to be well informed. Right now for the campaign we have seen that a number of new pages have appeared that use the name of "Cuenca", "la morlaquita", "la cuencanidad", but that have clear political interests. We have seen a page on Facebook that promotes news of Cuenca and is even being promoted ... and you open the page and see news of Cuenca and the country, but in every four, five or six news, there is a tendency towards a candidate. That page is evidently being promoted and some lies and falsehoods have passed.
Q. DOES THE INFORMATION WHICH A FALSE NOTICE DUE HAVE THE SAME IMPACT?
R. I think that for that there is the right to rectification and the right to reply ... I think it should have the same incidence ...
Q. WHAT DO SOCIAL NETWORK USERS HAVE TO DO WHEN SEEING SOME TYPE OF INFORMATION?
R. You always have to doubt. And above all refer to sources that are serious or sources that are known and confirmed. Anything that comes out now many people believe and it is because the Internet is accessible to everyone. So, it is in that group of people - which is huge - where these false news have a tremendous impact. One of these cases was what Brazil experienced in the last elections.
Q. WHAT HAS ALLOWED THE STUDENTS TO HAVE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT?
R. They are very motivated ... for them there is no better thing to do the practice.
Q. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO DETERMINE UNTIL THE MOMENT?
R. It's a result we did not expect. We have maybe a few 10 days that began to move the page on Twitter and we had a reaction, that being unexpected, is very compromising for us, because (the followers) believe that we are a reference of the truth ... we must also see what is a project of the students. We were just talking about what the future of this is going to do. After they go on vacation, we will prepare a team that will stay working.
P. WHAT COMES? TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THAT THE ELECTORAL PROCESS IS ONCE AGAIN
R. A lot of work is coming for us and we are going to have a lot of false news to disprove.