The percentage of people using social media is growing steadily every year. With the
increase in Internet coverage, more and more users are using social media in their daily lives.
Among the huge variety of social media platforms, there are undeniable leaders, s illustrated in the Figure 1:
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Figure 1: The most popular social media platforms worldwide (Statista, 2020)
Instagram was created in the fall of 2010. The app positions itself as a photo and video sharing platform with elements of a social network (Dubrovik, 2013). From the very beginning of its launch, the platform proved to be extremely successful, and by December 2010, Instagram had 1 million users, and in June 2011, more than 5 million people were registered on Instagram (Siegler,2011). Such success could not go unnoticed, and in April 2012 Facebook announced the purchase of the Instagram app for the US $ 1 billion (Rusli, 2012). According to Statista (2020), more than a billion users are registered on Instagram nowadays.
17 WeChat
WeChat is a Chinese mobile communication system for text and voice messaging, developed by the Chinese company Tencent. With over a billion active users, WeChat is one of the five most used social media in the world. The application is incredibly popular in Asia, while very few people have heard of it in Europe (Montag, Becker & Gan, 2018). WeChat supports text messaging, voice messaging, multi-recipient messaging, photo, and video sharing. It is possible to exchange contacts via Bluetooth and, if desired, there are various ways to establish contacts with random people. Also, It is possible to carry out money transactions inside WeChat, the internal payment system is called WeChat Pay. In 2016, WeChat had more mobile transactions over just Chinese New Year than PayPal had during the whole of 2015 (McEleny,2016). Due to the incredible popularity of Wechat in China, the government of the country began to use this application for mass surveillance of citizens (Cockerell,2019).
WhatsApp is a popular free instant messaging system for mobile and other platforms with voice and video support. Allows you to send text messages, images, videos, audio, electronic documents, and even software installations over the Internet. WhatsApp Inc. was founded on February 24, 2009, and is located in Mountain View, USA; Since October 2014, owned by Facebook Inc. The deal reached the incredible US $ 19 billion (Covert, 2014).
YouTube
YouTube is a video hosting service that provides users with services for storing, editing, and displaying videos. Users can upload, view, rate, comment, add to favorites, and share certain videos on YouTube. According to Alexa.com, YouTube is ranked second in the world in terms of the number of visitors, yielding primacy to Google search.
Facebook is the largest social network in the world (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), with over 2.5 billion active users (Statista, 2020). Facebook also owns such popular services as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus VR. Facebook is a popular social network for promoting products or services of companies. Facebook provides users with the ability to leave reviews since subscribers can comment on posts, rate brand pages for others to see.
18 2.5 Time spent on social media
The amount of time people spending on social media increases every year. So, for example, in 2012 the average time spent by a user on social networks was 90 minutes, and in 2019 this figure was already 144 minutes.
Figure 2: Daily time spent on social networking sites from 2012 to 2019 (Statista, 2020)
If we compare the average time spent on social media by region, then most of the time users spend on social media in Latin America (212 minutes, which is 68 minutes more than the average time in the world), and the least time on social media is spent by users in North America (116 minutes, 28 minutes less than the world average). If we follow the time spent on specific social networks, then the undoubted leader in terms of waste of time is Facebook. On average, users of this social network spend 58 minutes a day on it. Instagram is only slightly inferior to Facebook: users spend 53 minutes a day on it. The least time users spend on Twitter- just 3 minutes a day (on average) (Famemass, 2019).
Figure 3: Average time spent on social media by platforms (Famemass, 2019)
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3 FAKE NEWS
As described above, social media is evolving very quickly (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Along with the development of social media, the number of people who have access to these very social media is increasing and user-generated content has become an increasingly important part of the digital world (Grossman, 2006). In addition to obvious advantages, the openness of social media to all users has brought a number of problems, one of which is fake news. Unlike traditional media, where all information is checked before publication (well, or at least should be checked), absolutely any user can post content of any kind on social media. Such content can carry disinformation, slander, and misrepresentation of the truth, etc. In 2017, Collins Dictionary named "fake news" the phrase of the year, noting that since 2016, the number of uses of the term in the media has grown by 365% (Flood, 2017). Analysis of the search query
"fake news" in Google Trends showed that this term became popular in early November 2016, which coincides with the US presidential election and the massive use of bots for misinformation and propaganda.
Figure 4: Timeline of the popularity of the search query "fake news" in the world (Google Trends, 2020)
This section will describe the concept of "false news", its characteristics and features, the history of its occurrence, as well as ways of identifying and combating false news on social media.
3.1 Definition
Nowadays, we come across the expression "fake news" very often. However, its meaning often varies from context to context. And yet, what is fake news? Cambridge dictionary defines fake
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news as “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).
The term "fake news" Wikipedia interprets as fully or partially fictional information about social events, certain persons, which is presented in the media under the guise of real journalistic materials. They are often humorous or satirical and are created to ridicule or draw attention to important social issues or trends (Wikipedia, n.d.). That is, this definition of fake information is positive and entertaining. However, in modern social media, fake information is aimed at misinformation, misleading the audience, which in turn causes not positive but, conversely, negative emotions. Allcott & Gentzkow (2016) define fake news as “news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false, and could mislead readers” (p. 213).
Fake news is defined as news that is entirely composed and fabricated to deceive the reader, to increase website traffic and profits. They should be distinguished from satirical news that uses exaggeration and fictional elements but is intended to entertain the reader or draw his attention to a particular issue (Hunt, 2016). Well-written fake news can easily be perceived by a user as real, which will entail the rapid spread of false information among users (Vosoughi, Roy &
Aral, 2018).
Fake information is written for a specific purpose. Answering the question "why spread lies?", we can identify several types of fakes on social media, depending on their task:
● Fakes that spread panic among people;
● Fakes that incite ethnic (racial, religious, etc.) hostility;
● Fakes that spread false thoughts in order to confuse us, to distract from the truth;
● Fakes that manipulate human consciousness;
● Fakes that advertise someone or something;
● Fakes that bring profit to the media that distributes it ("yellow press");
● Fakes that damage someone's reputation;
● Fakes that are entertaining (Kitsa, 2016).
The unfortunate thing is that people can not always distinguish a fake from reality, a distorted message from the truth. Among the titles of news are materials posted on the pages of fake publications, whose names impress or disprove the user. They arouse increased attention and interest from users, who continue to spread fake information, wanting to attract a larger audience, share it with their friends from social networks, thus becoming a tool of propaganda.
At the same time, society uses every opportunity to combat the spread of fake information.
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Vosoughi, Roy & Aral (2018) in their work found out how fake news spreads online, and also highlighted the main topics that are present in fake news. The authors analyzed real and fictional news circulating on Twitter between 2006 and 2017, analyzing over 126,000 news stories in total. The following figure represents the most popular topics for spreading fake news online:
Figure 5: The most popular topics among fake news (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018)
3.2 Disinformation and Misinformation
“Information is power. Disinformation is abuse of power.”
Newton Lee
In English, two concepts mean false or untrue information - "disinformation" and
"misinformation". Moreover, both of these words are often associated with fake news.
However, it is necessary to understand the difference between the two terms. Disinformation is specially created and disseminated false information. Disinformation is one of the ways to conduct information warfare in the modern world. Disinformation can include distributing forged documents, falsifying photographs, or spreading dangerous rumors and fabricated intelligence in order to gain an advantage over the enemy. Pope Francis has defined disinformation in the media as a situation where only information that is beneficial to someone is presented. In this case, viewers or listeners will no longer be able to draw the right conclusions because they do not have all the components. According to Pope Francis, the worst
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sins of modern media are disinformation, vilification, and defamation. And the most dangerous is disinformation (Credo, 2014).
When random users believed false or inaccurate information and shared it with relatives or friends, this is misinformation. Misinformation is also false information but disseminated without intent to mislead, spread panic, etc. Disinformation can easily turn into misinformation.
Crisis situations often contribute to the emergence of misinformation. Thus, the coronavirus epidemic was accompanied by an "infodemic", according to World Health Organization (WHO, 2020). People began to share unverified information about the coronavirus without bothering to check the facts for veracity. False information harms others and misleads them, no matter for what purpose this information was disseminated. Therefore, it is extremely important to rely only on reliable sources of information, trying to avoid rumors and speculation.
3.3 History of fake news
Lies have always existed in society. Although the term fake news emerged in the late 19th century (Merriam-Webster, n.d.), the very concept of misinformation and false messages goes back to ancient times. One of the oldest documented cases of disinformation can be considered the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. Pharaoh portrayed the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) as a stunning victory for the Egyptians. He said that he personally defeated a huge number of enemies during the battle. However, the peace treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites shows that the battle actually reached a dead end and neither side emerged victorious (Weir, 2009). In the first century BC, Octavian Augustus waged a disinformation campaign against Mark Antony, portraying him as a weakling, drunkard, and weak-willed puppet of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Also, Octavian published a document, allegedly from the hand of Mark Antony himself, where he bequeathed to bury himself after his death in the mausoleum of the Ptolemaic kings in Alexandria (MacDonald, 2017). Of course, this news caused a storm of indignation among the Roman population. In the end, Mark Antony committed suicide after being defeated at the Battle of Actium (31 BC).
A striking example of fake news is the case in the city of Trent, Italy, in 1475. When a two-year-old boy named Simonino had gone missing, city preacher Bernardino da Feltre blamed the local Jewish community. The preacher claimed that the Jews were like a boy, killed him,
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and then drank his blood in order to celebrate Passover. Later, he also stated that the boy's body was found in the basement of one of the Jewish houses. When rumors reached the governor of the city, he ordered the arrest of all Jews in the city. Fifteen people were found guilty and burned at the stake. When rumors reached the Vatican, the boy was canonized under the name of Saint Simonino (Soll, 2016).
Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1439 gave a huge boost to the development of fake news. Along with the spread of book printing, fake news began to spread around the world: from stories of sea monsters and ghosts to accusations of sinners for natural disasters. An earthquake in Lisbon in 1755, which took more than 12,000 lives in just 6 minutes (about 10% of the population of Lisbon) and about a thousand more from the tsunami that followed the earthquake (Albert, 2016). This event, which shocked the whole of Europe, and also exacerbated political contradictions in Portugal and ended the colonial ambitions that the country had in the 18th century. The Church and many European authorities saw in the natural disaster divine retribution for sinners. A new genre of fake news brochures (relações de sucessos) has emerged in Portugal, claiming that all survivors owe their lives to the apparition of the Virgin Mary. Such strong statements did not remain ignored and made the famous philosopher of his time, Voltaire, into an activist against false religious news (Soll, 2016).
Analyzing the history of fake news, it is impossible not to mention the main deception of the 19th century - "The Great Moon Hoax". This is a series of six essays published in the New York newspaper "Sun", the first of which appeared in print on August 25, 1835, describing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon (Andrews, 2018). This discovery was falsely attributed to John Herschel, one of the most famous astronomers of his day. Undoubtedly, the appearance of such a serious name in the newspaper has multiplied the "truthfulness" of the article. This series of articles caused a lot of buzzes, made the newspaper incredibly popular and generated huge profits for the publisher.
Fake news became especially popular in the 20th century. However, this time the emphasis of this kind of news shifted towards military propaganda, which was facilitated by numerous conflicts, as well as the First and Second World Wars.
3.4 Types of fake news
When we talk about fake news, first of all, we mean misinformation and lies. The classification and definition of these concepts can be found in the works of Shu et al. (2017) and Wardle
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(2016). In their study, Sukhodolov & Bychkova (2017) distinguish the following types of fake news:
1. Depending on the ratio of reliable and false information
● Completely false news;
● News containing lies against the background of reliable information;
● The "news" is based on a real event, fragments of which are distorted.
2. In terms of the authenticity of time and place details of the event
● An event that happened in the past is presented as fresh news;
● An event that happened in one place is presented as an event in a completely different place.
3. In terms of persons mentioned in the news
● News item that allegedly contains a link to a statement about an event by a famous person;
● News exposing a minor participant in the events as the main person;
● News based on the testimony of unverified persons.
4. Depending on the purpose of creation
● Fake news that created for entertainment purposes only;
Not all fake news is designed to misinform with malicious intent. On the Internet, we can find tons of websites that publish satirical or humorous news about certain events or individuals. Such fake news is purely entertaining.
Examples of sites that post such news include the British website The Daily Mash or the American satirical news agency The Onion.
● Fake news that created to achieve political advantage: to discredit political competitors, to provoke riots, etc;
One of the most popular and, at the same time, the dirtiest tricks in elections is denigrating an opponent. This method of power struggle reached its climax during the 2016 US presidential race when both candidates did not hesitate to throw mud at each other (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).
● Fake news that created to discredit persons by gender, nationality, religion, etc;
Lies based on the theme of religion or racial discrimination have existed since ancient times. Unfortunately, in our time, such news also appears frequently. A good example is an article from the unreliable blog NeonNettle.com (Greenberg, 2018), which, referring to the words of Pope Francis, argued that gun owners cannot call themselves true Christians. The news sparked a lot of
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heated debate among religious gun owners in the United States before being rebutted by resources such as Politifact and Snopes.
● Fakes that created for the purpose of economic benefits;
Often, fake messages from supposedly "reliable sources" can have a strong economic impact. For example, the message about the impending deal between Twitter and Google, published on the fake Bloomberg website, triggered an 8%
rise in Twitter shares, which increased the company's capitalization by about $ 2 billion. It is difficult to call this positive information for Google, but for Twitter, this news definitely played into the hands.
● Fake news that created to increase internet traffic;
Fake news is a good way to attract more audience to a website, thereby increasing internet traffic and income from the website. When creating fake news, authors often resort to the most flashy and shocking headlines - such headlines will undoubtedly attract attention.
● Fake news that created for the purpose of illegal appropriation of funds and other property;
Sending phishing emails is the most popular way to extract personal data from users for the purpose of illegal enrichment.
● Fake news that created with the aim of damaging information on the user's computer;
Sites that host fake news may contain viruses, or the news may link to sources that could harm the reader's computer.
● Fake news that created for the purpose of drawing attention to an individual, company, or organization.
Fake news, thrown in at the right time, can have a serious impact on the image of a certain person, both by denigrating him or increasing his rating (for example, in an election race).
5. Depending on the level of perception of reliability
● Fake news perceived as fake
● Fake news that could raise doubts about the veracity of the information
● Fake news written so convincingly that the reader has no doubt about the truthfulness of the information (Sukhodolov & Bychkova, 2017).
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Fake news today can take many different forms. Fake news is not only a publication with posted false information. For example, on platforms like Instagram, fake news takes the form of photos or images with modified content. For Twitter, fake news most often takes the form of posts with inaccurate information. After analyzing the work of Wardle (2016), the following ways of distorting information can be distinguished:
1. Fabricated Images
Often a slight change to the image is enough to give it a completely different meaning.
Using photo editing programs like Photoshop, you can put a person in a photo, or vice versa, remove important details from an image. Undoubtedly, such an image can be used to fabricate accusations against individuals or entire countries.
.
Figure 6: Edited photo from the G20 summit (TJournal, 2017)
2. Fabricated video
With the advancement of technology, it has become possible to fake not only images
With the advancement of technology, it has become possible to fake not only images