EDITORIAL

Tuesday’s editorial, entitled “Social Media – a tool for empowerment and change!”, looked at new technologies and mediums like Twitter and Facebook, hailing them as platforms from which to shed light on and deepen conversations about critical social and political issues. However, before the proverbial “ink could dry”, news stations across the United States that very day were busy lambasting the same modern trend of sourcing news through online social spheres, because of the risk of obtaining “fake” news.

 

It all came to the fore when it was revealed that a potentially deadly situation that was averted on Sunday, could have been avoided entirely if there were greater restrictions placed on websites and blogs that publish non-factual stories and push conspiracy theories. In the incident, a man reacted after reading online that Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in northwest Washington, was harbouring young children as sex slaves as part of a child-abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton. He subsequently attempted to rescue said children by firing from an AR-15 rifle. Police later found a rifle and a handgun in the restaurant.

 

The story that motivated the man, Edgar M. Welch, was one of many circulating the web which originated in October not long before the presidential election and grew in number up to present. The articles were exposed as fake by The New York Times, The Washington Post and fact-checking websites like Snopes. However, the debunking did not have the desired effect, it instead led to more hype about the conspiracy theory and Welch’s decision to take matters into his own hands. 

 

On Tuesday, mainstream media criticised the Trump campaign machine and the president-elect himself for perpetuating this phenomenon with his Twitter tirades and Youtube rants on various issues, many of which have been refuted as being less than factual by analysts. In short, the Donald Trump team was held up as an example of and supporter of fake news, and the mainstream media eagerly highlighted the potentially deadly outcome at Comet Ping Pong as evidence of the result of this movement against mainstream.

 

In the past, this paper has echoed the need for social media sources to be more responsible in vetting their information and stated clearly the devastating effect that misinformation can cause, especially if it is inflammatory in nature. However, although social media should have a responsibility to not perpetuate rumours, unless it is the online version of a mainstream media outlet, there is usually no accountability taken for misinformation.

 

Moreover, despite whatever is published on social media, every individual is responsible for his/her own actions. Therefore, Edgar Welch, on reading of a possible child-abuse ring, should have done the responsible thing and alerted the authorities to his suspicions, and not taken the law into his own hands. 

 

Here in Barbados, there are frequent “fake news” items which circulate social media, namely Whatsapp, the most recent being a warning about the water quality on the island. Thankfully, these non-facts are quickly disputed publicly by the relevant authorities. There has also been a campaign by the Freemind Institute within local schools to encourage more analytical thinking that should help youngsters to think before they act and not react, as Welch did. Entitled “The Power of Choice”, this movement reinforces for instance that “I am responsible for my every thought, word and action, and even my feelings!” and that “The only person in this world that I can control is me!”