Fake News is nothing new, it is not something that miraculously appeared in 2016 and spread through the internet like wildfire. ‘Fake News’ has made up a large proportion of the News industry since News began, before Social Media, before the Internet itself.
So Why Now The Mass Panic Over The Existence Of ‘Fake News’?
In days gone by ‘Fake News’ was the instrument used by the state media to manipulate the populous, this has worked perfectly well for centuries. However, in the last decade with the advancements of the internet and social media, News in Media has been transformed into something less centralised. We now live in a time when an individual can witness something and have it online and visible to millions within literally seconds. With this ability, the previously dominant state sponsored mainstream media no longer have the audience majority that they used to.
This poses a major problem for the establishment and their media counterparts as we recently saw with the Brexit referendum in Britain and the US Presidential Elections. This was the staw that broke the camels back so to speak, a solution to allow control over the News media was required – Enter ‘Fake News’.
Of course ‘Fake News’ does exist, there are whole websites dedicated to providing satires article, but these are generally ‘tongue and cheek’ and intended as humour rather than to dupe the reader into believing its ‘Real News’. There are also plenty of websites out there who fabricate articles purely for advertisement reasons, but again most of these are obvious and the stories they publish are often so outlandish even the most hardened conspiracy theorist would struggle to take them seriously.
But the above mentioned ‘Fake News’ is nothing new, it’s been circulating the web for years, the recent high alert of ‘Fake News’ is purely down to the loss of control over the ‘Official Narrative’.
Unfortunately the most dangerous ‘Fake News’ is that which is pumped out in the Mainstream Media as people are less vigilant in further research if it’s published by a well-recognised media outlet such as The Daily Mail or CNN.
How Is This Alleged ‘Fake News’ Epidemic Going To Be Handled By Social Networks And Search Engines?
Both Google and Facebook are under increasing pressure to clamp down on the circulation of what the Government deem to be ‘Fake News’. World renowned ‘Fake News’ agency the BBC reports:
Damian Collins, the committee chairman, said the rise of propaganda and fabrications is “a threat to democracy and undermines confidence in the media in general”.
“Just as major tech companies have accepted they have a social responsibility to combat piracy online and the illegal sharing of content, they also need to help address the spreading of fake news on social media platforms,” he said.
The European Union (EU) have warned Facebook and other online social media giants that if they do not take action against ‘Fake News’ they will face prosecution from Brussels, The Financial Times reports:
European Commission (EC) has warned Facebook and other social media outlets they should eliminate fake news or face legal action from Brussels
Facebook have already begun working on ways to help resolve the issue, they will be using third-party ‘fact checkers’ as we reported in an earlier article.
Facebook’s aim to combat fake news with fact checkers & ‘untrustworthy’ shame label trial https://t.co/U2pbVScPoj
— RT (@RT_com) January 16, 2017
One of these ‘Thrid-Party’ Fact checkers will be none other than snopes.com. Nevermind that Snopes own CEO has been accused of fraudulently laundering money through the company to pay for his prostitute habit, nevermind that consistently Snopes has been wrong in their ‘Fact Checking’.
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Are The Biggest Culprits For ‘Fake News’ Such As The BBC Likely To Be Penalised?
In a word NO.
From the very beginning of this ‘Fake News’ agenda, the mainstream media have been the establishment mouthpiece. With articles offering advice on how to spot fake news articles from real articles, giving examples of website’s which publish fake news and generally sitting up on their high horse looking down on every other media outlet that isn’t a whore for the establishment’s narrative.
Of course, the likes of the BBC, CNN, Fox News, ABC, Sky News and others are some of the worst culprits for publishing ‘Fake News’.
In an article from thefreethoughproject.com five of the most dangerous lies by the mainstream media are detailed, however, there are plenty more. Including these:
https://youtu.be/blg9XVBUEZg
The following TED talk by former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson exposes how the Mainstream Media lies and twists the truth to suit the narrative, this is a must see:
But regardless of all that we know about the Mainstream Media and the lies they tell don’t expect their articles or video reports being marked as ‘Fake News’ on Social media platforms anytime soon.