Fake News and Social Media Censorship: Examining the Librarian Role

Introduction

It was predicted that social media would give people, especially consumers, more power (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). As society progresses into the big data age, the essence of knowledge consumption, assimilation, and circulation has shifted dramatically. We are all bombarded with data at an alarming pace, which has affected how people view, distribute, and use it. Individuals have responded to the ever-expanding technological environment and its vast amounts of uncontrolled big data by filtering information into a more comprehensible and relatable form and compatible with their worldview. The overconsumption of information powered by the internet has resulted in a “post-truth” culture in which citizens consume information that reaffirms their pre-existing values and philosophies rather than undertaking the challenging task of identifying the truth. Doubt and scepticism continue to increase as the online world becomes more complex and challenging to navigate, with people preferring familiar facts over accurate ones (Gallagher, 2016).

However, changes in information consumption patterns could positively impact social capital, political conversation, or public participation (Gil de Ziga et al., 2012). Nonetheless, recent observations have shown a troubling connection between social media and fake news (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; Vosoughi et al., 2018). Social media sites’ advent and popularity have complicated the relationship between humans and knowledge by facilitating fake news through their resources and functions. Fake news authors have taken advantage of this cultural pattern to entice and spread fake news for propaganda purposes (Ohleiser, 2016). Fake news producers on different social media channels often spark discussions, alter views, and gain followers for their ideology. As seen in the Pentagon’s Military Analysts Program (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2015), fake news peddling can also be motivated by monetary gain or the desire to influence public perception of the world’s situation. Another motivation for producing and consuming fake news is online networking (Blanco-Herrero & Arcila - Calderón, 2019), the lack of a centralized monitoring system for news consumption on social media sites, and a decrease in confidence in media (Budak, 2019).

Without question, the latest COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in creating and consuming fake news as it appears to have deepened the debate around health-related false news, creating more questions about its consequences for public health. Referring to how fake news spread online has exacerbated the pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the world was fighting not just a pandemic, but also an “infodemic,” a worldwide epidemic of deliberate distribution of false or misleading information that could include various forms of reconfiguration, in which current and sometimes correct information is twisted (Mesquita et al., 2020; Wardle, 2017).

However, the dissemination of fake news can be catastrophic and dangerous in political and cultural spheres. Within a decade, social media – freshly dominated by big data – shifted from being a facilitator of democracy to a severe threat to it, most recently with Facebook. The world became aware of these tools’ potential to disrupt democratic processes due to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Cambridge Analytica effectively influenced and manipulated public opinion in events such as the 2016 US presidential election and the 2018 Brexit referendum using data from several million Facebook users. As a result, there was a public uproar and debate over ethical practices for social media companies, data security, and the right to privacy.