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Ha Jae-sik's "Fake News Battle" is a fresh update about fake news and its irreversible, devastating consequences on the community. The fallout of fake news goes far beyond what we can possibly imagine and what's worrisome is that the entire globe is grappling with the phenomenon, according to the author.
He claims that fake news has led to the mass killings and deportation of Rohingya people in Myanmar as the military created and disseminated fabricated stories about them on social media with malicious intent to pit the majority Buddhists population against the minority Muslim group.
Ha, an assistant professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois Springfield, voices his concerns about social media, claiming it has become a conduit for misinformation, and encourages those who are involved in the media to stand up against fake news.
"It's regrettable that social media has become the epicenter of fake news," he wrote. "Conspiracy theories are rampant on social media and they are out of control. It seems inevitable that all members of society, including policymakers and journalists, start a debate about how to regulate disinformation and draw up measures to redress the victims."
According to him, content creators are not the only people to be held accountable.
"I think social media companies are not directly responsible for fake news," he told The Korea Times in a recent interview. "Broadly speaking, I think there are three groups of people who are responsible for manufacturing and disseminating misinformation ― social media users who created and uploaded misinformation, internet users who selectively choose information they are to consume in favor of their political orientation and some media outlets that are trying to profit from fake news."
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| "Fake News Battle" by Ha Jae-sik |
"Fake News Battle" said the deadly consequences of fake news have been amplified, partly because of sensationalist media outlets that seek short-sighted gain at the expense of their reputation as well as the public interest. In the Western world, he said, some media moguls used their influence to change governments, mentioning the presidential election results in the United States and the resignation of Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull as two examples.
News consumers are poles apart based on political orientations and such a division makes it easier for fake news to spread, according to him.
"News consumers tend to choose which stories to read or media outlets to subscribe to, based on their political leanings. They turn a blind eye to truth and trust the information they want to believe. This amplifies the rift of conservative and liberal news consumers. To some extent, it seems that a sort of echo chamber phenomenon plays out in the division of news consumers," he said.
The author claims that fake news poses a grave threat particularly to the media.
"In recent years, journalism has been exposed to serious threats and the sources of such threats are both inside and outside the media," the book reads. "Some political leaders accuse the media of producing fake news and social media releases fake news."
Ha puts forth suggestions on the regulation of fake news, calling for policymakers and representatives of related organizations to sit down to define fake news and how to penalize disseminators. He made the recommendation amid a backlash against the government's attempted interference in social media.
Han Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, vowed to regulate fake news. On Nov. 6, he told reporters that one of the ideas he was considering was the establishment of an independent institution responsible for checking facts and briefing a fake news committee about their findings. Then the committee would send it to respective media outlets to help them self-regulate fake news.
He went on to say that the regulation of fake news is a sensitive topic as it could be seen as a repression of freedom of expression.
