13.10.2014

So, let's collect in one post all the mistakes of our highly respected, honest and independent media.

It is clear that this post will focus on Russian media. Only the Russian media bully us so much that we can’t even believe it’s possible to bully us with such confidence. Ukrainian media, as you know, are also good. But they don't rig the cards. They can embellish something in words, leave something unsaid, etc. But what they don’t do is photoshop the reports. This is the lot of RTR and Channel One.

Of course, finding all the fakes is an unrealistic task. But let's at least look at what we have now. I would like to start our review from our first revelation, which you may have already come across on the pages of NoNews. So, the Ukrainian fascists are going to beat Dambaz.

But the Kremlin bots throw in pictures from Israel being shelled by Hamas and pass it off as Lugansk. Even from the terrain it is clear that this is not Ukraine. This photo was also published by the BBC, but we couldn't find the original.

And then, it means that the Russian media discovered American BlackWater mercenaries in eastern Ukraine. The photo of these guys was taken in New Orleans. Let me remind you that the Russian Foreign Ministry has considered New Orleans to be part of Ukraine since the publication of this material.

Here some bot talks about how Ukrainian PUNISHERS (sounds threatening, but) killed a girl in Slavyansk. Previously, a photo of this girl had already appeared on the Internet. In fact, she died a year earlier in Crimea.

There is even such a thing. It turns out that Poroshenko is an agent of the US State Department. Naturally, no one gives any proof links to WikiLeaks. The media should take their word that the President of Ukraine is an agent of America.

Well, the photograph is not a fake. This will not be shown in the Russian media. These are the Russian patriots here, they are for Mother Rus' and against the fat-eating Banderaites. Oh, well, even against the fascists - as without this.

And some idiot published this, I don’t even know him. If in previous times fake pictures were taken from other years, then this time the picture is fresh. The first photo shows a girl who was killed in Ukraine. The second photo shows a previously published photo of a girl killed in Syria.

Here, the Kremlin bedding is passing off a dead girl in Ussuriysk as killed by the ATO.

And here we have US propaganda, set against honest workers of the Russian media. They (the USA) returned to 1995 and published this photo under the guise of Chechen. The damned capitalists are doing everything in order to desecrate the clearest conscience of the Russian/Donbasso media.

And here we have a statement from Ladimr Ladimrych. Almost didn't say anything.

Let me not comment on this photo, take a little break from sarcasm.

Remember how in the summer everyone said that after Crimea became Russian, everything there became completely free, and there were a lot of tourists, and life was better. Photos of crowded beaches from previous years were published.


Those who showed even the slightest desire to check this information could quickly see that this was not so. Online web sites used to work in Crimea (and still work now), where you can always see what is happening in 10 cities of the peninsula. There are a lot of personnel, here’s one, I think that’s enough.

But somewhere I found a comparison photo. Actually explain it. Written as it is. The inauguration was in Russian.

Here - look at the date.

The guy Vadim knows better than Wikipedia what the real Bandera looks like.

In the vatnik group (on Odnoklassniki) they are spreading another fiction. This photo was taken on February 3, 2007 in the German city of Ludwigshafen during a fire in a residential building. The baby was thrown out of a window and caught by a local policeman.

The NTV channel reported that in Rome several hundred Russian supporters came to a rally against the distortion of information about the situation in Ukraine by the European media. However, these students are protesting against cuts to social programs. In Russia, this is probably considered one and the same.

In one of its reports, Channel Russia 1 used a video from YouTube. The “cap” of the video is correct, they didn’t put it into the frame.

Photo of a Ukrainian helicopter taken in Cote d'Ivoire. How did the Ukrainian plane end up there? Ask the RIA editors.

Slavyansk, let us remind you, has recently been considered Uganda.

Kolomoisky’s punishers punished the mothers of the punishers who punish Russians in eastern Ukraine. They've already punished me, damn it.

You didn’t think that this review would be possible without Lifenews, did you?

Just look at the comments to this photo on VKontakte.

Oh, here’s more about Crimea.

Well, this, of course, is enchanting bullshit. The video can be easily found on YouTube.

Russian propaganda cannot do without gays either.

Another fantasy.

And one more fantasy.

Mexico, if anything, is also part of Ukraine.

Reports from Mr. Strelkov.

You just need to compare the dates.

Save Darbmaz people!

Found it on VKontakte.

Russia is rich in talent. True, the aunt plays extremely convincingly.

I also took a contact person.

Actress from the same theater.

Contact again.

Based on the source of information, it is immediately clear what will happen now.

The contact exposes again.

Look like that's it. Something like this.

Trump calls reports of sending US troops to Saudi Arabia fake ... US President Donald Trump called fake reports that Washington will send troops to Saudi Arabia. About it... . military personnel to Saudi Arabia, is false, or, more precisely, fake news", said the American leader. Trump called sending troops to the Middle East... Roskomnadzor published a list of resources distributing fakes ... the VKontakte network. Roskomnadzor decided to create a list of Internet pages with fake news Plans to create a corresponding list became known in September of this... Russia, Vladimir Putin approved a law providing for the blocking of fake news. So, for the first distribution fake citizens face a fine of up to 100 thousand rubles, legal entities... . and up to 1 million rubles. respectively. In case they are fake news resulted in harm to health or mass disruption of public order... The court overturned the decision on Russia's first fines for fake news ... the first person in Russia was given an administrative fine under the article on fake news. This was reported by TASS with reference to the organization's lawyer Fedor... in court on November 21. Russia imposes first fine for fake news news On October 15, the Magistrate Court of the Khoroshevsky District of Moscow fined the “Moment of Truth... the law on fines for the distribution of fake news” news in March of this year. According to the document, for the first distribution fake Individuals face a fine of up to... Russia imposes first fine for fake news ... information). The article implies responsibility for the spread of fake news. “This is really the first media fine for “ fake news,” the press service of Khoroshevsky confirmed to RBC... the law on punishment for the distribution of fake news in mid-March of this year. For the first distribution fake citizens face a fine of up to 100 thousand... at the end of September Roskomnadzor, from the beginning of the law on fake news The department received 10 demands from the Prosecutor General's Office addressing 47 pages...

Society, 23 Sep, 11:48

Roskomnadzor decided to create a list of Internet pages with fake news ... that since the beginning of the law on punishment for the distribution of fake news on the Internet, the Prosecutor General's Office sent ten demands to Roskomnadzor... this data has been removed from the pages. As examples, Zharov cited news about the conflict in Chemodanovka, explosions at the Kristall plant in Dzerzhinsk... adopted amendments to legislation aimed at countering the spread of fake news news. For the first publication fake citizens face a fine of up to 100 thousand rubles, legal entities... Trump calls article about his idea to blow up hurricanes with nuclear bombs ridiculous ... reach the coast - ridiculous. I never said that. Another fake news", noted the head of state. We are talking about an article by Axios, in... The Prosecutor General's Office announced the need to combat fake news Preventing the spread of false information on the Internet, which can cause public outcry and negative consequences, requires special attention from the prosecutor’s office. First Deputy Head of the Prosecutor General's Office Alexander Buksman stated this at the board of the department, an RBC correspondent reports. “On our initiative, the Prosecutor General’s Office was given the right... London will allocate $22.5 million to fight disinformation in Eastern Europe ... ($22.5 million) over three years to fight fake news news in Eastern Europe and to support independent media in Western... some of the most repressive societies,” and will strengthen the fight against fake news news. As British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt explained, only 10% of the world's population has access to free media, and “fake media” news and disinformation continue to undermine and destabilize the public.” These funds are... Roskomnadzor announced the removal of fake data on the fight in Chemodanovka ...gypsies in the village of Chemodanovka, Penza region. This was reported by RIA News» with reference to the press service of Roskomnadzor. “All that information that... Some posts on social networks about explosions in Dzerzhinsk fell under the law on fakes ... with the fact that they were recognized as fake. Law on fake news news earned just a few months ago, Roskomnadzor included in the register of prohibited... fake news entered into force on March 29, 2019 in Russia. It provides that for the distribution of known and socially dangerous fakes Maybe... The adoption of the law on fake news was linked to the fire at Winter Cherry. ... the need for a law The need to adopt a special law to combat fake news news became completely clear after the tragedy in “Winter Cherry” and the spread of... this law, Levin assured. The head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov added that news about the many corpses in Kemerovo morgues after the tragedy in the Winter... about responsibility for the spread of fake news news. In accordance with it, for the distribution of known and socially dangerous fakes may face a fine of... Trump explained his financial losses by his desire to pay less taxes ...explained his financial losses and accused journalists of creating fake news Donald Trump said that in the 1980s and 1990s, many... approached this information. Finally, Trump called the article another fake news. Material about Trump's business appeared in yesterday's NYT. IN... Lavrov called CNN journalist's question fake ... Lavrov, answering a question from a CNN journalist, recalled that the channel is called “ fake news". The transcript of the interview was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry. "Some people call your company CNN" fake News”, and now you are also making a “fake question” (“fake question... military intervention in Venezuela, if Washington decides to start it. Distributor “ fake News CNN has repeatedly called US President Donald Trump. Lavrov said... Zelensky's headquarters threatened people from Poroshenko's entourage with criminal cases ... the entourage of the outgoing head of state Petro Poroshenko fabricated “several outright lies” news"about Zelensky. “This leads to the conclusion about close cooperation between our neighbors... for one term: 10 facts about Vladimir Zelensky Another fake, according to Zelensky’s team, a message about the politician’s vacation on a yacht... Human rights activists announced the first case under the fake news law ... In Arkhangelsk, the first case was opened under the law on fake news. This was reported to RBC by the head of the legal service of one of the divisions... this is the first known case of application of the law on liability for fake news. news. According to the portal 29.ru, the reason for the case was the post..., Severonezhsk and a number of other cities in the Arkhangelsk region. Law on fake news news entered into force on March 29. For distribution in the media or... Poroshenko considered reports about his drunkenness to be “fake Russian propaganda” ... President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called “ fakes» reports that he has an alcohol addiction. He stated this... on the air of the “Freedom of Speech” program on the ICTV channel. "This fakes Russian propaganda that Poroshenko drinks is not drying up,” said... The majority of Russians opposed the law on disrespect for power ...to the state. The Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and Roskomnadzor criticized the bill on fake news. The Human Rights Council also opposed Klishas' initiatives, calling on... VTsIOM on a similar topic. According to this study, the punishment for fake-news known to 78% of Russians. The majority of respondents - 83% - supported this initiative. Against... Russian diplomats announced a competition for the best fake story about “intervention” ... Russia” during the American presidential elections, announced a competition for the best fake news about this theme. “Now that the Mueller report is complete, we would like to announce a competition for the best fake news. news on the topic of “Russian interference,” says a statement from the Russian Embassy in...

Politics, March 29, 00:32

Laws on fake news and insulting authorities came into force in Russia ... laws on liability for the spread of fake news are enforced news and an insult to authority. Bill on unreliable news the President approved on March 18. From March 29... Andrey Klishas. The Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and Roskomnadzor criticized the bill on fakes. The Human Rights Council also opposed the initiatives, calling on senators...

Technologies and media, March 18, 17:34

Putin approved a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles. for spreading fake news ... President Vladimir Putin signed a law that provides for blocking fake news news- unreliable and distorting facts. The corresponding document was published on the portal of legal..., industry or communications. Peskov refused to consider the bill on fake news censorship news In such cases, the Prosecutor General or his deputies may apply to... creating interference with the operation of vital support facilities and infrastructure by disseminating false information news: for citizens from 100 thousand to 300 thousand rubles, for...

Politics, March 14, 19:33

Matvienko appreciated Russian memes about laws on fakes and insulting authorities ... the law on insulting the authorities, if you praise it, you will fall under the law on fakes news“, - the speaker cited one of the memes. The relevant laws were approved by the Duma... and “the people are the most talented, smartest, most creative.” The State Duma approved the law on fake news news On March 7, it provides for a fine for disseminating false information from... . The Duma supported the removal of news aggregators from the law on fakes​ The Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) asked the President...

Politics, March 14, 01:01

Trump responded to reports of Melania's doppelganger US President Donald Trump was outraged by reports that on trips around the country, instead of his wife Melania, he is allegedly accompanied by another woman - a “double”. “The deceitful media used Photoshop to alter photos of Melania, and then spread conspiracy theories that it was not really her who was next to me in Alabama and other places. ...

Politics, March 13, 14:26

The Federation Council approved laws on punishment for insulting the authorities and fake news ..., senators approved laws on disrespect for authority and unreliable news. 142 members of the Federation Council voted in support of the first (four against... Andrey Klishas. The Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and Roskomnadzor criticized the bill on fakes, however, the government supported the document, leaving a positive review “taking into account the comments...

Society, 12 March, 20:24

Journalists and human rights activists speak out against the fake news law ..., in which they opposed the laws on fakes recently adopted by the State Duma news and about insulting the authorities. The full text of their statement was published by the publication... Russian and international courts. The HRC asked senators to reject laws on fakes and disrespect for power Last week, March 7, the lower... bills of Senator Andrei Klishas on introducing penalties for the distribution of fake news news and showing disrespect for authority. These initiatives have already been opposed...

Politics, March 07, 11:06

The State Duma adopted a law on fake news ... did not have. The broadcast was conducted on the website of the lower chamber. Under fake news the text of the law refers to unreliable socially significant information disseminated under... a sledgehammer.” The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications sent a negative opinion to the government on the bill on fakes, but the ministry did not oppose the initiative as a whole. Chairman...

Politics, 06 March, 12:46

The Duma tightened Klishas' bills. Who will be punished and how for “insulting the authorities” and fake news ... supported in the second reading bills on punishment for the spread of fake news news and display of disrespect for authorities, state symbols in online publications... Andrey Klishas. The Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and Roskomnadzor criticized the bill on fakes, however, the government supported the document, leaving a positive review “taking into account...

Technologies and media, 05 March, 16:32

The Duma supported the removal of news aggregators from the law on fakes ... Actions of the law on combating fakes will not affect news aggregators. Previously, the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy... did not fall under the law on combating the spread of fake news news. The corresponding amendments to the second reading of the bill were supported by the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, reports RIA News" The first reading of the document, supported by parliamentarians, took place at the end of January. By...

Politics, 27 Feb, 15:59

The State Duma proposed to remove traditional media from the bill on fakes ... and so are quite effectively regulated by the authorities - without a law on fake news, indicated the head of the lower house of parliament committee on information policy Leonid Levin. From the scope of the bill on combating the spread of fake news news lawmakers plan to withdraw traditional media. This was reported to the TASS agency... they announced the comments of the Cabinet of Ministers on the projects on fakes and disrespect​ Bill on combating fake news news at the end of last year prepared and...

Politics, February 19, 13:00

Volodin proposed to investigate fake media reports about bills ... Volodin believes that with fakes we need to fight about the work of the State Duma, in connection with which he proposed... there is no garage State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to fight fake news news about the work of the lower house of parliament. He stated this in... The State Duma supported Klishas’s bills on fakes and disrespect for power ... the lower house supports the initiative. Parliamentarians discussed whether they would be considered unreliable news forecasts. “Forecasts differ from forecasts, we must look at each specific case... initiative is needed to block such news. Bokova replied that this claim most likely does not relate to fake news, and to the bill on contempt... The State Duma announced the Cabinet's comments on projects about fakes and disrespect ... Bills to block websites for being fake news and insult to state symbols and institutions of power received positive feedback from the government, ... about disrespect for power Bills on punishment for the distribution of fake news and disrespect for power was brought to the State Duma by Senator Andrei Klishas... World Economic Forum, Switzerland
© World Economic Forum

Fake news versus real politics

Zeinab Badawi: Welcome to the World Economic Forum in Davos. We are discussing false news. Today, this buzzword is on everyone’s lips, since in the current Internet era, the phenomenon it denotes has acquired particular importance. Let me introduce you to the participants in our discussion.

So, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia. The main goal of his latest project, WikiTribune, is to combat fake news. Joseph Kahn is the managing editor of The New York Times, which has seen its circulation skyrocket since its founding in 1851 and won more than 120 Pulitzer Prizes for its journalism. Anna Belkina is deputy editor-in-chief of RT, the Kremlin-backed television network officially known as Russia Today. Bilawal Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, is the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated ten years ago.

Let's welcome our experts. And, of course, those who listen and watch us all over the world: on TV, radio and online.

I asked my colleagues at Click, the BBC's latest technology show, to review what fake news is and how it's becoming more sophisticated.

Video

Fake news. Today everyone uses this term. And it’s no coincidence. While President Trump may have helped bring the term into the dictionary, the rest of the world is struggling to separate fact from fiction.

Headline: “Liberal Church Ministers Who Sheltered Muslim Refugees Are Horrified by What They Find in the Pews.” This news is fake. Jutta Kramm, editor-in-chief of the fact-checking organization CORRECT!V: “The headline said: This is what an Islamic society looks like, and we are getting there.”

And this is fake (on the screen - a post on social networks, Germany). “These were unbelievable, chilling videos...” (India). Also fake.

The problem is that today everything seems to fall under this concept, from actual lies to things you disagree with. So how do you separate fact from fiction, opinion from satire, and wildly deceptive and misleading headlines? Giants such as Facebook, Twitter or Google have been struggling with this problem for a year now. But do they have what it takes to fight this battle in a world ruled by likes, clicks and attention grabbers? Perhaps one of the reasons why it is so difficult to stop this flow of false information is that there is a lot of money behind the creation of fake news.

Mile Grncarov (former fake news creator): “I’ve been doing this for several years. I was still very young then. A lot of fake news is written by ordinary people. They sit at their computers with a simple formula: scandalous headline plus false information equals profit. Once upon a time, even thirteen-year-olds could do this.”

One thing is for sure: fake news is much easier to fabricate and spread than it is to detect and expose. I admit that the problem may get worse in the near future. It is possible that new technologies will soon make us doubt not only the authenticity of what we read, but also everything we see and hear. Our faces can be stolen, our voices can be imitated. Never before has reality seemed so illusory. Technology-assisted fact-checking organizations are working to identify and list fake news, researchers and policymakers are beginning to study their impact, and we are all beginning to understand the extent of their power.

Theresa May: “By tapping state-controlled media, Russia seeks to use information as a tool to spread fake stories and Photoshopped images in an attempt to divide the West and undermine our institutions.”

Is it too late, or is this just the beginning of an arms race of high-tech fake news?

— Quick question for all of you. How useful is the term "fake news"? Joseph Kahn?

Joseph Kahn: This term is useful in the sense that your video highlights. The phenomenon of false information, deliberately created for ill-intentioned political or economic purposes, is an urgent and very serious threat, especially when information is so widely shared across a variety of technology platforms. I would say that today we are more aware of the need to combat existing fake news.

— We will return to this topic later. Bilawal, do you think fake news is an apt shorthand for an all-encompassing formula?

Bilawal Zardari: Not sure. Because I understand, and this is obvious, that false information, propaganda, disinformation have long been components of information warfare. Fake news has gained prominence relatively recently - in the context of the American elections, as we saw in this video. When politicians use the term as a catch-all phrase to cover up political manipulation and what they don't like, then its meaning becomes even more obscure. This is the main question of our discussion about the usefulness of this term.

— Anna Belkina?

Anna Belkina: In my opinion, this term is extremely dangerous because it confuses the debate and public discourse about the accuracy and factual validity of information. Moreover, as you and I see, fake news becomes a weapon in the hands of public figures as well as media organizations, a way to silence dissent, a way to avoid responding to any criticism, and in the very last sense it exacerbates the real problem that we're trying to decide here.

— Fine. Jimmy Wales, so we call fake news both fabricated information and simply news that people don't like?

Jimmy Wales: Yes, I do think this is a problem. This is a surprise for me, but here I agree with Anna. True, we must add to this that we should separate fake news invented by teenagers and the like from factual propaganda in the spirit of RT. Confusing these two concepts is actually a big mistake.

— Joe Kahn of , you personally received an award for fake news, which, from the point of view of the White House, your newspaper deserved. And you know: all this is treated as a joke, for people this is another reason to laugh. Is this really a joke?

Joseph Kahn: President Trump's definition of fake news poses a real problem: his accusations of spreading fake news are themselves fake news. The problem with fake news is not journalism, which sometimes makes mistakes in the reporting and writing process and then properly corrects them. Good journalism organizations are always willing to admit their mistakes. All the awards the president gave to “fake media” ended up in the hands of media organizations that made factual errors and corrected them. For me, this is an indicator of good journalistic practice. To call it fake news is to deliberately denigrate journalism, that is, to use the term, as the video said, as a tool to try...

“Are you wearing some sort of badge of honor now?” Like, I have a White House award for fake news.

Joseph Kahn: Why not? I don't mind getting another one.

- Bilawal, this is just one side of fake news. In fact, in your part of the world, where fake news is spread on WhatsApp or some other media, it can have more dangerous consequences.

Bilawal Zardari: I think they could have dangerous consequences anywhere. I think what is most alarming and dangerous is what has been said here in relation to President Trump. Not because the prize he founded is in itself ridiculous. The fact is that in this way the leader of a democratic country showed the press in the most unsightly way. This is my opinion. Since in our country political parties have fought for democracy, and it has not yet fully matured, I am concerned about the use of this term by politicians: in this way they denigrate the press - and, on the other hand...

Is the same thing happening in Pakistan? Who is behind the fake news?

Bilawal Zardari: I will not name the names of these politicians, but the attacks and denigration of the media, the constant repetition of the words “fake”, “fiction” on a massive scale - this is what is happening.

—Who else is behind this in Pakistan?

Bilawal Zardari: As with anything else, there is no exact answer to this question. Yes, politicians are behind this. The media in my country, as well as in other parts of the developing world, is much more profit driven, reflecting the interests of big business, which are not constrained in the same way as in the UK, where you cannot own a television station or newspapers. They pursue their own commercial interests. Therefore, non-traditional platforms can serve as a source of completely reliable news.

— In general, many participants are involved in the game. Jimmy, Wikipedia is definitely part of the digital explosion. But you are, to put it politely, also part of the fake news problem, because Wikipedia has quite a lot of inaccuracies.

Jimmy Wales: Of course, there are many inaccuracies in everything. But the important thing is that we at Wikipedia do our best to correct them. We have very high standards for the reliability of our sources. We have a very open policy of correcting any bugs that come our way. Of course, serious research, serious journalism means that mistakes can happen from time to time. But the key point here is that you just have to try to fix them. This is the main principle.

- And no malicious intent.

Jimmy Wales: This is really important. And, you know, a lot of the problems with fake news, when it, for example, spreads on social networks and so on, does not concern Wikipedia, because our community takes a very responsible approach to evaluating sources. And so when we see fake news coming from teenagers in Macedonia, or something like that, our experts immediately determine: well, this is not a real newspaper, I've never heard of it. They will double-check everything and never allow such information into Wikipedia...

— Anna Belkina, in our short video we heard Theresa May accuse Russia of using information as a weapon. And, as you know, RT receives many accusations from a variety of sources. I know you will say that this is not the case, but you know that NATO, French President Macron, Theresa May, the German government, the American government are all saying that Russia as a state actor is involved in creating fake news and using stations for this , similar to RT.

Anna Belkina: These accusations - and I will speak directly about RT, because many of them were addressed specifically to us - these accusations are false, they are, without a doubt, false. I'm glad you mentioned President Macron's statements. In fact, RT was targeted during the presidential campaign to spread false information.

— That is, you accuse President Macron of spreading false information about RT.

Anna Belkina: His campaign staff have repeatedly stated that RT is disseminating false information about their candidate. However, throughout the entire campaign and after it ended, they were unable to produce a single, single example of this type of news story.

- I know that you will call this falsification, but such statements come from many places, for example, from NATO. NATO says there has been a significant increase in Russian propaganda and disinformation since 2014. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg exposes Russian fake news agencies. In fact, I could list many more examples.

Anna Belkina: But this is partly the problem - that we clash different concepts. Terms like propaganda, false information, disinformation are much more subjective and vague than fake news. And they are used by people to refute and discredit any kind of messages that contradict their position, opinions that are inconvenient for them, or even just facts. But when a presidential candidate or his team consistently and without evidence make these kinds of accusations of falsifying news and, you know, all the American and leading Western media are happy to point out any statement ...

— Evidence was provided by the intelligence services of Germany and France.

Anna Belkina: We criticize President Trump's statements in many ways without attempting to address President Macron's accusations. In fact, only one, one single media outlet came forward to call Macron's campaign into question: Reuters. And they did not receive a single example of false information provided by RT.

- Jimmy Wales, are you happy with what you just heard? This intransigence and categorical denial?

Jimmy Wales: We have evidence from many different places. Thus, at Columbia University's School of Journalism there is a team of graduate students who are working on the RT Watch project. And they found many examples of completely misinterpreted events, false reports, fake experts, outright lies. Just unbelieveble. This question should not even be considered open. And I also think it's very important to understand what serious people don't usually say: fake news is news that I don't agree with, it's not about suppressing those who express an opposing point of view. After all, (The Wall Street Journal) and The New York Times don't call each other fake news every time they disagree on something. We are talking about basic standards of journalism.

Joseph Kahn: I think Anna is right in one respect, and Jimmy mentioned this before. There is a semantic difference between propaganda or news with a distorted meaning, which is disseminated by a government or news organization for some political purpose and which is based on facts, but its main purpose is to give its interpretation of these facts in order to achieve...

- Here is President Macron. Some wild accusations were made against him that he had secret bank accounts, that he was a secret homosexual, and so on. There is no basis for truth here.

Joseph Kahn: There is a whole spectrum here, where on the one hand there is propaganda and manipulation of information, and on the other there is completely fake and harmful fake news.

“But this is exactly what they talk about when RT is accused.

Joseph Kahn: That is, you can discuss where they fit on that spectrum.

Anna Belkina: None of these messages appeared on RT.

- Okay, I'll read you exactly what he said. Emmanuel Macron said RT - he also mentioned the Sputnik website - were “agents of influence who have repeatedly spread information about me and my company that is contrary to the truth. They behave as agents of influence and false propaganda.” That's what he said. Then deal with him.

Anna Belkina: We tried, and repeatedly.

Bilawal Zardari: I will speak out in defense of Russia Today. Politicians, media, biased media, push agenda and so on. But let's not forget that weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are also fake news. Theresa May in this video says that Russia is using information as a weapon today, but she is also saying this in state-sponsored media. We sit on the BBC platform, which is funded by the UK. We must learn to see this. After all, if you look from the outside, we also often do not notice our own shortcomings and weaknesses of the Western position.

“Bold of you, Bilawal.” However, I must say that when we fail, we admit that we did something wrong. Our arguments are not equivalent now. Yes, you will say that RT is the same national television company as the BBC. But the BBC is overseen by the independent regulator Ofcom, which has nothing to do with the government. And the BBC regularly reports and investigates the government. Are you doing the same on RT?

Anna Belkina: We do exactly the same thing. We are also audited by Ofcom, all our programs. And just like Joe was just describing the process...

But the problem is that we are changing the rules of the game. The mistakes that RT made - of course, we made mistakes in our reporting, and we returned to them, we corrected them, we published clarifications for the audience. But when it comes to RT or other alternative voices, legitimate alternative voices in the media, these kinds of accusations become a way to distort the meaning of what we do. Whereas other media outlets, say publications like the New York Times and mainstream media, get away with it.

Articles on the topic

Russia is the target of NATO 'fake news'

The Independent 09/23/2017

The EU is Putin's main competitor

El Pais 01.12.2017

Russia threatens international order

The Guardian 11/14/2017

Fake news and biased news

Project Syndicate 07.11.2017

Sweden and Denmark against the Russian threat

Aftonbladet 08/31/2017 - The BBC regularly defends its position on issues such as the Iraq War and Brexit, which the government does not like. And the government regularly says, “We don't like what's on the BBC,” and so on. It happens all the time, endlessly. So there's no point in comparing.

Joseph Kahn: I would like to return to the issue of Iraq. Because I wouldn't want us to leave here with the general idea that the participants in this discussion consider the reports about WMD in Iraq to be a good example of fake news. From my point of view, this is by no means a good example of fake news. This is an example of a completely bad policy or political goal that was aggressively and ultimately inaccurately presented by the media. In other words, there was no fake news.

“We have become victims of some kind of manipulation.”

Joseph Kahn: The journalistic process of covering WMD in Iraq was not a process of maliciously spreading fabricated false news. Therefore, I believe that this case cannot be classified in this category.

— Let's return to weapons of mass destruction, or weapons of mass disappearance, as they came to be called later.

Bilawal Zardari: My position is this: regardless of what the BBC or the New York Times say, I respect honesty and independence. But the fact is that they pushed through American intelligence reports that were pure fiction. So I don't know how you describe...

Joseph Kahn: That's right: which later turned out to be pure fiction. At the time of their discussion, no one knew that it was fiction. If we had known it was a hoax, we would not have reported it. The New York Times, the BBC and other media outlets double-checked their information on this issue, but no one knew that it was fiction.

“It seemed to me that one of the spectators reacted irritably to the words spoken here. By the way, you can somehow demonstrate your attitude to what is happening, for example, applaud if you like. Let's listen to the questions. We have Iman Usman in our room from Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world. You work in the online learning industry. Your question please. If possible, briefly.

Iman Usman: Many politicians abuse the media for their own short-term gain - winning elections. And this led to a rampant fake news, which, in turn, provoked divisions within communities. So my question to the panelists is: what danger does fake news pose to democracy and who should respond to this phenomenon?

- We will return to the answer later. Let's take the first question. How fake news is dangerous for democracy. Interestingly, a poll released this month found that 73% of Americans believe fake news is a threat to democracy. Joe?

Joseph Kahn: I think yes. Perhaps I will approach this issue from a different angle. I believe that excessive partisanship in politics—not just in the United States, but throughout the world—gives rise to the phenomenon of fake news, as opposed to fake news that produces excessive partisanship. We are in an environment where people lead political lives based on personality, where they make connections to certain uses of information based on its political value, on how political parties use it. I don't think fake news is the cause of the problematic state of democracy. In my opinion, the spread of fake news is one of the most characteristic signs of the decline of common values ​​and a common sense of truth. Iman Usman: And my question to the group is how much danger does fake news pose to democracy, and who and how... there is someone who should be held responsible for this phenomenon...

- We move on to responsibility, let's take the first question first. How dangerous is fake news for democracy? In fact, a poll just this month shows that 73% of Americans believe that fake news actually poses a threat to democracy. Joe…

Joseph Kahn: I think so, and I'll turn this question around a little differently. I think that hyper-partisanship in politics, not just in the US but in the rest of the world, is the source of the phenomenon called fake news. and she suggests that fake news in turn exacerbates this polarization. We now live in an environment where people base political life on their own identity, where they accept certain news and information that suits their political values ​​and how their political parties use them. I don't think that fake news is exactly the cause of the problems with democracy; in my opinion, the rise of fake news is one of the most important symptoms of the decline and dependence on certain generally accepted values ​​and generally accepted judgments about what the truth is.

— Anna Belkina, do you think there is a threat to democracy?

Anna Belkina: Yes, I agree with you, Joe, that any false information can potentially be very dangerous not only for political processes, but for any public debate in general. However, several studies have been conducted in the US and Europe and they show that although people may be vulnerable to fake news, false stories and information, they generally still make political decisions based on evidence, truthful information that convincing to all of us. This does not mean that we can relax, but it can be a kind of beacon in this situation.

- Jimmy Wales, I want to point out that the Trust Barometer study, which covered 28 countries, shows that 65% of people get their news from the Internet, and there is a lot of potential for this to wreak havoc, because it's a lot , Truth?

Jimmy Wales: That's a lot, really. But one of the encouraging things that has become clear from this Trust Barometer is that people's trust in news coming from social media has dropped significantly, which means people are starting to realize that some of the things they miss social media may be true, but sometimes it's worth going back to the source to check.

“That’s the whole point, isn’t it, that’s exactly it?” Do people really believe that this story that some Macedonian teenagers gave us about the Pope endorsing Donald Trump as a candidate is true? I mean, you know, smart people, they should think: Pope Francis supports migration and so on, this cannot be true. Shouldn't we trust human intelligence more?

“But they don’t believe in it, even though they shared it...

Joseph Kahn: It's unclear, you don't know it. But I [know] that most of the time when people share something on social media, it's because they want their friends and community to see it and understand it.

— What do you think, if people share something on social networks, then they think that the story is true?

Jimmy Wales: Yeah, I think they figure it's either disturbing enough or compelling enough in the context of how they themselves are feeling right now for it to be worth telling someone, for it to even be worth reading or some sort of warning. I think this is all very difficult for those who are addicted to reading the news: you need to keep in mind all the time that there may be news that immediately shows that they are simply ridiculous, like the one about the dad who supports Trump. But people who don't consume news as often and are more casual about it... by the way, I think in a free society people have the right not to be interested in the news, but when they do get some information, it should be of good quality. They have the right to quality information.

- Anna Belkina?

Anna Belkina: I think we need to look at why they have to read and share their news there in the first place, and I think one important reason is that most people in Europe and the US have felt for many years that their own media did not quite fulfill their purpose, since they saw that they did not reflect their reality particularly well. And so they turned to alternative voices, some of which are legitimate and responsible, like RT, while others are not. And until the mainstream media takes a critical look at why this environment was created in the first place, until reporters and columnists make an honest effort to meet those needs rather than simply squeezing legitimate alternative voices out of news discourse, this is a problem. will remain.

— Anna Belkina points out the weak point of the mainstream media; this is a really pressing question: why does the audience turn to other sources of information? Is it because the mainstream media is failing in its job of giving the public and readers what they need? That is, it turns out that you also bear part of the responsibility...

Joseph Kahn: I think our job is to reach as many people as possible with our journalism, but I think we need to understand that a large share of the reading public wants information that aligns with their political beliefs and preferences, but The New York Times " and the BBC are not obliged to provide them with information confirming their beliefs, we are obliged to provide them with journalism. In a hyper-partisan society, you encounter people who are constantly looking for sources of information that confirm the validity of their political beliefs. Often they fail to do so in the most reputable media outlets, and then they look elsewhere. But it is not our responsibility to feed them fake or misleading news just to confirm their political beliefs.

— Okay, but many say that the responsibility of the official media is also that they failed to form any standards, which in its way also contributed to the growth in the number of fake news.

Joseph Kahn: I wouldn't agree with this.

— Maybe this doesn’t concern the New York Times, but others...

Joseph Kahn: I, as you understand, cannot speak for all representatives of the official media, but I think that the official media are generally doing everything possible to try to improve their work. They make mistakes at times, the journalistic process is not perfect by nature, but we have a responsibility to deliver fact-based journalism and that is how we reach our audience. You know that we have a very significant audience. But you cannot, looking at the world of news and information in general, blame the failure of the official media for the fact that opinions based on one's political preferences have now begun to circulate so intensely on the Internet.

- Fine. Let's turn to the audience, we have one more question. Rebecca McKinnon is from the United States and works on information technology and free speech and privacy criteria. Rebecca, your question briefly, please.

Rebecca McKinnon: Of course... My question is related to the previous one, but it concerns business models in democracies. We now know from process research that has taken place in recent years that the information companies that appear on social networks are the result of very skillful use of the functions and services that social networks like Facebook provide to advertisers within the Internet market. And the question is whether our media ecosystem is over-reliant on advertising, particularly those advertising technologies that track people across the Internet and allow targeted messages to be sent to very specific groups of people. To what extent does this threaten the existence of a democratic society?

- Yes, this is a big topic, let's limit ourselves to discussing whether we need to somehow rework our business model, which assumes that advertising hits the target as accurately as possible...

Jimmy Wales: Yes, the advertising business model has been incredibly destructive to journalism, but one of the most encouraging signs I've seen in the last couple of years is the incredibly personalized, digital-only subscriptions to The New York Times and other quality publications: people are finally , they are beginning to understand that you still have to pay for quality journalism. The particular problem with these advertising technologies is that everywhere I go on the Internet I see the same advertisements, I see advertisements for boats because I love boats. In the old days you might have said: I want to sell boats, I'm looking for men in their fifties with a midlife crisis, because that's the type that usually buys boats, and you assume they might read the New York Times, the Guardian. and, for example, the Wall Street Journal, so that's where you advertise. Now everything is not like that, I can be on the Reddit site, on some forum, on some spam site, anywhere, and everywhere it will be the same. This means that serious players are now directly competing with each other to earn dollars directly from clicks, which becomes a source of the wrong motivation for everyone.

— So we need to rework our business model?

Jimmy Wales: We need to rework our business model, absolutely. Advertising as one of the elements of the business model is good, but in an environment where advertising services are highly automated, journalism simply cannot be a competitor; we are talking only about endless clicks.

- We will come back to the solution, to the idea of ​​​​what can be done, we will get to that, but now... We need to rework our business model, what do you think?

Bilawal Zardari: Certainly, I would agree that not only fake news, but this business model is a fundamental threat to democracy and the media, especially in countries like Pakistan, although there are other examples. Large business corporations control most or even all of the media in Pakistan, they dominate everywhere, control the presentation of information, and they have no qualms about producing made-up news, running made-up information on online media, and the quality of journalism in Pakistan... That is, let me point out that Pakistan also has very good journalism, in my country we managed to prevent three military dictatorships thanks to some of the bravest journalists. But because of this commercialization, because big industry is bringing money into Pakistan and the government is handing out cash, what is being done on television now is more production, PR and propaganda.

— Anna Belkina, do you think the current business model, which seeks only to succeed in the big advertising competition, leads to the pursuit of sensations and can it become fertile ground for fake news?

Anna Belkina: I think this is part of the problem, but not the main one. In my view, false information is just as harmful when it is generated and spread purely for entertainment as it is when it is done for political influence or to make money from it. And the problem, again. is how we can develop immunity in the audience against this kind of information, regardless of why it was created and disseminated. And I know we'll get to that later.

“And it seems to me that this just brings us to the problem of whether to consider media like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and so on, publishers or social platforms. If these are publications, the same as newspapers, or the BBC, then they are required to comply with many rules. And they just don’t want to be viewed that way. Do you think they should be held more accountable, and whether, say, Facebook should rethink its entire business model and come up with a new algorithm that, for example, can handle more commercial content from brands and news providers. Jimmy Wales, you're nodding, so...

Jimmy Wales: Yes, I think it’s very interesting what Facebook is doing, and we don’t yet know exactly where it will lead. On the one hand, serious publishers should be glad that maybe it's not just catchy headlines that can get them traction on social media, but on the other hand, many are worried that this will lead to a decrease in traffic from Facebook, and in the short term these the fears are not unfounded, I'm sure. But I do think that social platforms need to pay attention to the role of the information they provide to consumers, not only for reasons of concern for the public interest - although, of course, this must be taken into account - but also for the quality of the experience that users receive from them . If you feel like when you go to Facebook or Twitter, you’re bombarded with all sorts of crazy stories, and you can’t even figure out what’s true and what’s not, it’s possible that you won’t want to go there at all, stop using Facebook altogether and say: I want a simple service to look at photos of my friends’ children. And then everyone will move to Instagram, why do they need Facebook? So the point is that they take it seriously.

“And you think that they haven’t done enough to do that yet.”

Jimmy Wales: I believe that they did not do enough to ensure that the reputation of their brands was not tarnished.

— But you classify them as platforms, and not as publishers, who are required to follow certain rules? Do you still think that these are social platforms?

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Joseph Kahn: Facebook is among those caught in this real predicament, and they are adamantly opposed to being reclassified as a publisher in the business ecosystem, which would make them responsible for everything their two billion users around the world post. . Ultimately, to ensure accuracy and truthfulness, they would need to hire every single person in the world to ensure that everything published on their platform meets their standards, as a good publisher would. And therefore, in the case of Facebook, it is literally impossible to change their business model to a publishing one. At the same time, they feel some of the same pressure as publishers because they themselves feel some responsibility for the worst fake news that can influence political debate. I think that explains why Mark Zuckerberg announced this algorithm change to kind of step back from trying to be a mainstream news provider or positioning himself that way. While that doesn't mean news won't appear on the platform at all, it wants to be a social media platform that people don't use as their primary source of information.

“But they may face a real decline in income as a result of their policy review.” They might just disappear.

Joseph Kahn: This is unlikely to happen, but in my opinion, their role as a source of news and information may become less significant, and, at least from what they tell us, they themselves will not resist the fact that they will no longer be considered such an important source news and information.

Bilawal Zardari: How will Facebook's decision affect publications like the New York Times? After all, when news is actively promoted on Facebook, this helps to increase the number of views on the publication’s website.

- You are doing my job now!

Bilawal Zardari: I'm sorry.

- It's OK. I give you permission.

Joseph Kahn: We're watching this situation closely, we're concerned, but we don't think we're being impacted in the same way as the ecosystem of fake news purveyors looking to drive viewership through advertiser clickbait, which we've never done. Facebook has never provided us with enough income to cover the costs of gathering information, reporting and publishing real news. Regardless, that's pennies compared to publishing on our platform as a digital media company or directly generating reader subscription revenue. Facebook is a very small source of our income.

“That means it won’t play a decisive role.”

Joseph Kahn: There will be some impact, but we hope not too significant.

— Anna Belkina, what do you think about changing this business model over time?

Anna Belkina: In my opinion, when discussing the role of all these platforms, we should not imagine these three American companies, three platforms, as global news censors. Of course, I can't imagine when fake information itself will stop being the focus, and I hope it does because it's damaging to all of us. But these platforms should not decide that one point of view has more value than another, that, for example, the Washington Post should be promoted more than the New York Times, BBC, TF1 or RT, when they publish credible reports.

- This is a very valuable argument. We've already said, as Joe Kahn said, we simply may not have enough fact-checkers when we're dealing with a huge influx of news and trying to figure out what's fake and what's not.

Anna Belkina: This tempts them to become de facto censors...

- This is a very dangerous misconception. Even if you find so many specialists, who will make the decisions?

When you imagine possible solutions, it must be quite difficult. For example, what YouTube has been good at is removing fake news, extremist videos and similar materials after the first warning that they are not true. In my opinion, they cope with this quite successfully. What other ways could there be to solve this problem? You have a Wikitribune project.

Jimmy Wales: Yes, Wikitribune is my attempt to play my small part in thinking about this issue. My point is this: we know that working in the user community has a huge positive impact, we see this as an example of Wikipedia, of course, not everything is perfect there, but there are good people working there who strive to do everything as best as possible. I'm interested in seeing if it's possible to create a Wikipedia-style community, combine it with professional journalists who get paid for their work, and create something new in the news space.

— That is, you want to combine civil journalism with professional journalism and organize their cooperation?

Jimmy Wales: Yes, cooperation is equal. You see, genuine citizen journalism has sometimes produced interesting projects, but it constantly runs into obstacles that are inevitable for a simple conscientious person sitting at home and working in his free time. You simply cannot drop everything and start investigating some plot that will take three days and the like. At the same time, we know that thoughtful people can make significant contributions. In the past, the structure of most news sites did not produce anything useful for the readership community. A classic example: here you have a news article, and under it the most terrible people in the world are facing each other, cursing each other. This is why many journalists are wary of the online community: their experience is that they published something and then were attacked in the comments. This is not healthy at all. These angry people writing comments do not represent all of humanity, there are many good people in the world.

- So you want to create a new website where there will be news that people write for people. How will a citizen journalist be paid? Since professional journalists will receive a fee, it would be fair...

Jimmy Wales: These are volunteers, they do it out of love for the topic, out of love for the news...

— Is it fair that some people will get paid and others won’t?

Jimmy Wales: If someone thinks it's unfair, then they shouldn't take part in it. If you're interested, you can do it.

- So, this is Wikitribune, soon you will be able to familiarize yourself with this project, it will soon appear in your Internet space.

Let's go back to our audience and listen to a question from Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the Minister of Information and Technology of the Republic of Bangladesh.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak: I thank the distinguished participants in this discussion for their insightful analysis of the topic. In my opinion, there are two ways to combat fake news. One of them is, of course, strict regulation, and the second is self-censorship. My question to the panelists would be: what would you advise to do in a country like Bangladesh, or would you prefer a mixed option?

— Do you mean that an attempt to strictly regulate the flow of information will deal a blow to freedom of speech?

Zunaid Ahmed Palak: Yes, because strict government guidelines on regulating fake news could, in fact, harm freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Therefore, my question to the panelists concerns the preferred way to combat this phenomenon: what is better, self-censorship or strict regulation? Or would you prefer something in between?

- Okay, thank you. As we know, in the UK the Prime Minister has already ordered the creation of a new unit to combat fake news. We also know that France and Germany have introduced regulations, in particular Germany has introduced very significant fines for creating fake news. That is, we already have before our eyes an example of government regulations regarding fake news. I would like to address this question first to Bilawal Bhutto: So, what is the right balance in trying to regulate hate speech while preserving freedom of speech?

Bilawal Zardari: I am very interested in how this situation will further develop in Germany, a country that strives to defend fundamental democratic rights. It will be very interesting to see how things will go there with the regulation of falsifications, as, indeed, in France. But regarding the question of the Minister of State of Bangladesh, I am afraid of threats to freedom of speech, especially in young democratic countries like ours, where there is a tendency towards authoritarianism. That's why projects like Wikitribune really inspire me, because there are a lot of citizen journalists in Pakistan who will be able to find an audience that trusts them, will be able to write for real, and it will help them learn something. I like projects like Africa Check or the Ukrainian resource Stopfake, where journalists came together, like in Politifact, to check fake news. And perhaps this will form a whole community, pursuing a common goal.

- So you want fake news to be checked from below, and not from above, by the government?

Bilawal Zardari: I would say that I feel more comfortable imagining something like this.

- And, in your opinion, will this be enough? Let's say, for example, there are elections in Pakistan this year.

Bilawal Zardari: Exactly. And I am sure that... We have already encountered fake news during the election period, both in Bangladesh and in Pakistan, they have existed for a long time. There is one component to this issue: I personally cannot trust my state with the task of regulating information.

— What if you encounter a truly harmful and destructive impact of fake news in your country, for example, if it causes someone's death? Isn't that what is required in this case, the strong hand of the state instead of control of volunteers?

Bilawal Zardari: No, I believe we are missing one key component - education. In my opinion, we need to reconsider how we teach children in school. I don’t remember being taught anything about journalism in high school, and I had to take such an elective at university. If we taught children about checking sources, about bias, about how to do research and check different points of view, if we told them what fake news looks like... I think education is a key component in this issue in countries like this. like ours.

— Anna Belkina, what do you say about fake news and the threat to freedom of speech and the role of the government in regulating falsifications?

Anna Belkina: The activities of many traditional information platforms - the press, television - are already quite strictly regulated by governments, this applies to both RT and the BBC, so I in no way believe that additional regulation will be the solution to this problem. Problems. As a member of the media community, I believe that the solution can be found within the community of journalists itself, in the area of ​​mutual responsibility. But this becomes irrelevant when Donald Trump accuses someone of spreading hoaxes, and the media takes it as a badge of honor, and President Macron does the same. And no one even checks this information. This can only exist outside of double standards, and not when editorial errors are used as a pretext to accuse entire organizations of falsification, while other people's mistakes are constantly justified. But when there is a fair attitude, analysis of information, when the mistakes that our team makes can be pointed out, when they can become the subject of constructive discussion, for example, with the New York Times and other publications, but RT can defend its positions - This is the most constructive approach, in my opinion.

— Joe Kahn.

Joseph Kahn: Both the US under President Trump and the Russian government under Vladimir Putin have taken leadership roles in combating what they call fraud, which I think reflects the riskiness of government intervention and oversight. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a seal, a big red seal, that it puts on reports that it considers falsified. Donald Trump had an award for fake news. These are not the people the broader community should look to, the ones who can tell us what is reliable and what is not in the news industry. In my opinion, it is very easy to slide into authoritarianism from here.

- So you are against government regulation?

Joseph Kahn: I would say that I have little or no faith that a government regulation will be the way to combat fake news. The only thing that can be effective in the fight against fraud is to improve the quality of news work, pay more attention to quality news, strive more for quality news on online platforms and finally, simply have more information at hand to combat malicious fraud .

“This is the incentive for publications like the New York Times.” Is this why your circulation has increased?

Joseph Kahn: People prefer brands they can trust, and this is confirmed on social media with genuine, original reporting, and over time we only need to be reminded of this again.

— Jimmy Wales?

Jimmy Wales: Particularly in fragile democracies where government pressure on publishers could potentially arise, strict regulation is an extremely dangerous option. I also don't think self-censorship is a solution to this problem, I don't even really know what it is, I think it's a false dichotomy to begin with. What I think we need is a strong ecosystem, we need independent journalism that can speak truth to power, but can also recognize fake news and tell the truth about it.

- So, Minister, you have a number of good options, now, upon returning to your work, you can draw up a whole project together with your citizens.

Now let's move on to the last question from our audience, Victor Oshen, a young activist from Uganda. Please, your question.

Victor Oshen: Thank you very much. I am from Africa, from the continent that has perhaps become the biggest victim of fraud. I wanted to ask the following question: on a continent like Africa, in its various countries, tribal ties are very strong in relation to politicians. Therefore, citizens do not question whether news about their political leaders is true. I want to ask how, being inside such rhetoric, you can try to change this culture, how to deal with such norms?

— Joe Kahn, I think you talked a little earlier about how people seek out opinions that reflect their own values, so, speaking in the context of Africa and the question asked, when people are bound by tribal ties, how can you try to...

Joseph Kahn: It seems to me that tribal ties are widespread not only in Africa.

— Yes, this is a more general context, but the question was how can one begin to change such a culture?

Joseph Kahn: In my opinion, this is a common problem, and it is getting worse and worse: it is the incredible partisanship of political discussions. I think that even facts that are not determined by political affiliation turn out to be subordinated to the party paradigm. You believe what you are supposed to believe, as dictated to you by your political leader or your party representative. This applies to climate change, economic developments, what is happening in your community, threats from immigrants... The concept of the need to use independent, factually verified information in democratic debate has recently taken a back seat. Tribal ties are beginning to play an increasingly important role. And, in my opinion, this is the huge dilemma of the mainstream media, which by their nature cannot belong to any parties, and, based on this, they cannot fully satisfy the demand of the audience by highlighting party relations.

- But this does not apply to all newspapers: for example, in the UK there is the Daily Telegraph, which is called the Daily Torygraph, because it is associated with the conservative party of the country, the Guardian newspaper...

Joseph Kahn: But imagine that Wikipedia and Wikitribune will develop in this direction, then this will lead to a significant deterioration...

- Be that as it may, they do not promote fake news.

Jimmy Wales: What is important here, in my opinion: people like to buy, for example, a newspaper, it corresponds to their worldview and so on, and this is in the order of things...

— This is a left-of-center newspaper in Great Britain.

Jimmy Wales: Or, for example, they buy the Daily Telegraph, and this is also normal. But Wikipedia is incredibly popular, as is the New York Times, people understand that, and they also have a great desire for clear factual information, unambiguous, as neutral and clear as possible.

— Our discussion is coming to an end. That is, in fact, this is a hermetic environment and its impact on fake news. Anna Belkina, and then Bilawal Bhutto. Anna?

Anna Belkina: I think the solution to this problem is diversity of viewpoints and diversity of stories reflected in honest, reliable reporting, which is what RT strives for. Seeking news and issues across given boundaries, such as in the US, across party lines, is a way to ensure the public has access to the widest range of credible news possible.

Bilawal Zardari: The issue of tribalism and partisanship is very important, and partisanship has begun to have a very poisonous effect on the foundations of democracy at the international level. But it is interesting to me that President Trump, in establishing these awards, is raiding and branding as partisan those publications that were previously considered objective news organizations. By hating you from party lines, he almost forces you to respond in the same manner.

— Do you think fake news, no matter how unfortunate this definition may be, will continue to exist? Anna Belkina?

Anna Belkina: Yes, but not for long. It seems to me that we all understand what they are fraught with.

Jimmy Wales: I believe that as such, fake news, spam sites generated by teenagers will be sorted out using certain algorithms in Google, Facebook and other resources. But deeper problems with social media and its funding will remain, and we still have a lot of work to do with them.

Bilawal Zardari: We will be faced with them for a long time, I only hope that we will learn to recognize them and teach our citizens to do so.

Joseph Kahn: As such, fake news is spreading less and less, and fake news in the form of political slander is gaining more and more popularity. And this is the main threat at the moment.

“We’ll have to end this.” Thank you very much. So you've heard a range of opinions about fake news, which I hope has given you some food for thought. Many thanks to the panelists and many thanks to our audience, I think we have covered all aspects of this topic. Before we wrap up, I'll quickly ask Joe Kahn: Do you think you'll get the Fake News Award from the White House this year, too?

Joseph Kahn: I would like to say that I am counting on this. If it looks the same as it did in the past, I wouldn't mind.

— Bilawal, do you think it’s right to continue this story with bonuses for fake news or is it better to simply eradicate it as a fact so as not to give unnecessary reasons?

Bilawal Zardari: I think they'll take on a life of their own and we'll just have to get used to them.

— Thank you to the participants in our discussion and our audience at the World Economic Forum from me, Zeinab Badawi, and the entire team of organizers of these discussions.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

Fake news is fake news that is created with the intention of deceiving the reader in order to increase profits and traffic.

But this is not satirical news, in which adding and exaggerating elements are used to entertain the reader and focus the audience's attention on a particular issue.

Let's give an example. Printing and the media have been developing for decades. Every now and then they contain “sensational” news, loud revelations and the discovery of world secrets. In fact, these are nothing more than ordinary newspaper ducks, “fakes.” Today there was similar news.

Who benefits from creating fake news and why?

First of all, fake news is created to distract the audience's attention from truly meaningful and important news. As a rule, they are used by politicians.

For example, during the last presidential race in the United States, there were many scandals and not very pleasant news surrounding candidate Donald Trump. To divert attention from the publication of new curious facts from the life of a businessman, candidate for the post of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn published a post on a social network with the loud title “Sex crimes with children” and subtly hinted that it was dedicated to the activities of Democrats. Naturally, public attention turned to the growing scandal surrounding members of the Democratic Party, and Trump’s moral character no longer seemed so negative. It later turned out that the news was fake.

Creating fake news on the Internet is also beneficial for increasing popularity or earning money. When you publish “tasty” news about famous people, they will definitely be made public, passed on to each other, liked, commented on, and reposted. As a result, the popularity of the resource increases, and as a result, its profit.

Also, fake news can be created for the purpose of PR, even black. Customers want to see results and be talked about. But the creators receive a good reward for this.
News “fakes” are also used today to attract traffic to the resource. Surely, you have received emails with loud headlines and bright photos. In this case, one goal is pursued - for the user to follow the link and visit the promoted resource. But it’s worth remembering that you can’t make money and attract really high-quality traffic this way.

How to spot fake news

Once we have defined what fake news is, it will be useful to know how to avoid falling for it.

• Read the headlines critically. If in the headline the author literally shouts about the importance and sensationalism of the news, using a question or exclamation mark, most likely, this is another fake.
• Check the news URL. There are not only fake news, but also entire fake news sites. So don't be lazy to check the news link.
• Trust only trusted sources. Before sharing shocking news with your friends, check whether it is true. Be sure to find out about the resource where you read it. Go to the “About Us” section and explore the resource.
• Watch for errors. If a resource has a lot of typos, punctuation and spelling errors, it’s a “duck”. The author was too busy inventing a sensation to proofread and check the text.
• Check video and photo content. This photo shows Philip Kirkorov kissing Queen Elizabeth, most likely a masterpiece of a Photoshop master. You can check the authenticity of photographic material using the Google search engine in the “pictures” section. If such a significant and striking photo is listed only on the Syktyvkar Sensations website, the likelihood of a fake increases hundreds of times.
• Check the publication date. Fakes, as a rule, do not have a publication date. How can you date an event that never happened? And in principle, the logic is simple: suddenly now the news about the wedding of Donald Trump and Angela Merkel will not “go through”, but in a year it will attract a huge audience.
• Try to find the same news in other publications. If no other publication can boast of the same sensation, most likely it is fake.
• Make sure it's not satire. Very often, “funny” news is published by major publications on the eve of April 1 and similar holidays. There are entire news resources that publish only joke news.

Fighting fake news

Fake news on the Internet is a problem today.

The European Union believes that fake news undermines the reputation of the media and destroys modern democratic values. In January 2018, the EU organized a group consisting of international experts to counter the creation and spread of fake news. The first meeting took place in mid-January.

The current President of France, Emmanuel Macron, is currently seeking the adoption of legislation aimed at countering the spread of false information on the Internet.

The UK government is now actively working to create a specialized government body to combat disinformation and fake news.

As you can see, the whole world recognizes this problem as urgent, and measures are being taken to combat it. However, until fake news is brought under government control, it remains to be as vigilant as possible, check and double-check data and news from the Internet.

They also permeated the Russian political landscape, often being considered credible by officials, journalists and the general public - whether it was a story that the West was pushing for the collapse of Russia or that a New York restaurant was serving a special burger in honor of the day. Putin's birth. Western states have several times accused Russia of using “fake news” and disinformation to achieve their foreign policy goals. (In Moscow, these accusations are regularly denied, as are attempts to influence the 2016 American presidential campaign through a flood of “fake news.”) Some “fake news” originated outside Russia, but was disseminated by state-controlled Russian television and private media organizations, and in some cases - and by officials. Let's remember some of the “fake news” and other examples of dubious journalism that died out in the Russian media in 2017.

"To destroy Russia"

In August, a site imitating the design of the Guardian newspaper published an article with false confessions by a former head of British intelligence that the West allegedly planned to destroy Russia.

In broken English, former MI6 chief John Scarlett reveals how Britain and the US hoped to use ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the “fictitious war between Russia and Ukraine” to achieve the “collapse of Russia”.

“I must admit that the Georgian and Crimean wars, which constituted the latter’s American and British strategic plans for the collapse of Russia, ended in failure,” Scarlett quotes from the fabricated material.

The fake was quickly exposed, including thanks to an investigation by BuzzFeed, and the Guardian called the incident “a fake story published on a fake website masquerading as the Guardian.”

However, large Russian media, including the federal channel REN-TV, drew attention to this publication. A few days later, Russian television political talk show host Vladimir Solovyov referred to the article, although with the caveat that some considered it fake.

Putinburger

On October 7, Putin's 65th birthday, Russian television and news feeds reported that a New York restaurant was serving a five-patty burger named after the Russian president. The reports were based on a video from the news agency RUTPLY, which is owned by the Russian government-funded channel RT. In an interview with RUTPLY, an employee of Lucy's Cantina Royale restaurant says that the burger weighs 1952 grams, which corresponds to the year of Putin's birth, and the menu contains an advertisement for a special offer with an image of Putin.

“Not only foreign leaders, but also ordinary citizens congratulate the Russian president, and in very original ways,” prefaces story about a burger by the presenter of the channel "Russia-24".

Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev, who regularly exposes canards in Russian media, soon found reports about this burger, which turned out to be fake. The restaurant denied the burger story, saying that “the employees responsible for the counterfeit have been suspended from work pending an investigation.” The restaurant employee stated that the action was her initiative and that she was fired. According to some reports, the waitress who gave an interview to RUPTLY was also fired.

RUPTLY subsequently removed the video, stating that "it did not meet editorial standards."

Kovalev has more than once accused Russian state media of fabricating or distorting news from abroad for the purposes of Kremlin propaganda.

“Putinburger was a particularly egregious example of virtual reality,” he told RFE/RL.

Nobel laureate Alexievich “died”

In May, a message about the death of Belarusian writer and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich appeared on the fake Twitter account of French Culture Minister Françoise Nissen. Nissen previously headed the publishing house Actes Sud, which published Alexievich’s French translations, so the news of her death was initially taken at face value.

Various Russian media - including the state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta and the RIA Novosti agency - quickly spread the news. It also appeared on the website of the Current Time TV channel, which is a joint project of Radio Liberty and the Voice of America. European media also quoted this message - for example, the newspaper Le Figaro and the Portuguese publication Diario de Noticias.

The news turned out to be fake. “Someone can’t wait,” noted 69-year-old Alexievich, who was in Seoul at the time, in a conversation with a correspondent from RFE/RL’s Belarusian service.

Shortly after the message appeared on Twitter, Italian journalist Tommaso Debendetti, who had previously published fake interviews with famous writers, took responsibility for it.

"Witness" of the MH17 disaster

On October 6, a statement by allegedly former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuriy Baturin appeared on the website of the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It claimed that the Ukrainian military had relocated a Buk air defense system to the area from which Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was later shot down. The disaster, which occurred in July 2014, killed all 298 people on board. From the material of the Zvezda TV channel it followed that the launch was carried out by the Ukrainian side, although this was not directly stated.

The Russian government and associated structures have put forward many hypotheses about the crash of flight MH17, including: it was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet. However, according to an international investigation, the plane was shot down by a Russian-made Buk air defense system from territory controlled by the separatists. The Buk air defense system was secretly delivered there from Russia, and after the shot was taken back. Moscow was accused of trying to disorient the investigation in order to divert suspicion from itself and the separatists.

The material of the Zvezda TV channel was replicated by various Russian media, including the TASS agency and state television channels. However, no other evidence was provided other than the “statement of a former Ukrainian military man.” Less than a day later, it was removed from the website of the Zvezda TV channel without explanation. A fragment of this video interview is now available on YouTube website.

Syrian (video) games

In November, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused the United States of collaborating with Islamic State (IS) militants: Washington allegedly provided cover for the extremists while Russian and Syrian government forces were engaged in their destruction. The harsh statements come shortly after revelations that U.S.-backed coalition troops had struck a deal with hundreds of IS fighters to allow them to leave besieged Raqqa. (The coalition did not confirm the transaction, but admitted that IS fighters left the city accompanied by civilians.)

However, statements by the Russian military published on Twitter and Facebook also contained photographs that “indisputably confirm that the United States provides cover for combat-ready IS units.” The images allegedly showed an IS convoy heading towards the Syrian-Iraqi border. It didn't take long for journalists and bloggers to spot one of the pictures: it turned out that it was taken from a commercial for the AC-130 video game. Other images were taken from video footage released by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in 2016. How installed journalists, they touched military operations against ISIS in Fallujah.

The “fake pictures” caused a wave of ridicule on social networks. Bloggers have posted screenshots from video games that could also illustrate the outcome of action films, such as the popular 1980s game Frogger, about a frog trying to cross a busy highway.

The Russian military deleted the images in exchange by publishing other “indisputable evidence.” The ministry admitted that the original images were fakes and blamed their publication on a “civilian employee” who was under investigation.

Bin Laden in the White House

Using a still from a video game as a documentary photograph is not the only example of Russian officials resorting to forgeries in 2017.

Known for her controversial statements, Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said on a political talk show on state television in November that former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden once visited the White House.

Zakharova mentioned this during a discussion about lobbying in the United States and an investigation into possible Russian interference in the American presidential election, as well as possible collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign staff and Moscow.

“Remember these fantastic, enchanting photographs of how bin Laden was received in the White House. This is classic lobbying in the truest sense of the word,” Zakharova said.

Bin Laden, who was killed in 2011 during a US operation in Pakistan, never visited the White House. Zakharova did not specify which photographs she was talking about, but Russian media suggested that she was referring to a photo collage depicting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the head of al-Qaeda shaking hands.

This fake has been floating around the Internet for many years. Bin Laden's head is inserted into a photograph with musician Shubhashish Mukherjee during his meeting with Clinton in May 2004. On the website of the sharply conservative Tsargrad TV channel, Zakharova's words are quoted without indicating that bin Laden was never in the White House.

A few days later Zakharova