‘I saw it on the Internet’

I do not know how others feel but for me, the moment any one tells me a very fantabulous story about a happening in a very faraway place or land where he has no personal access to or gives me a too-good-to be-true statistical data or a fantastic piece of information, it triggers the believability […]

I do not know how others feel but for me, the moment any one tells me a very fantabulous story about a happening in a very faraway place or land where he has no personal access to or gives me a too-good-to be-true statistical data or a fantastic piece of information, it triggers the believability alarm bell in my head. And when I go ahead to ask him where he got it from and he tells me, ‘’I saw it on the internet’, I become even more doubtful of the whole story even if it is true or contains some elements of truth in it. Do not blame me for I am not an incurable pessimist forever doubtful of the honesty and sincerity of my fellow men.

 This is what the advent of fake news, especially on the social media, has done to me and many others who have either before been mischievously or ignorantly misinformed, misled or misdirected bringing shame, embarrassment, loss and pains upon the victims. All over the world today, fake news is becoming a worrying phenomenon because with the advent of the social media, it has grown in sophistication, techniques and daring.

 For instance, a person’s photograph can be manipulated (photo shopped is what they call it) to portray him taking bribes in wads of Dollars, Pound Sterling, Euros or Naira; to portray him committing adultery with the recognizable face of another man’s wife; to portray him worshipping an idol in a make-belief shrine deep in the forest of the Amazon and to show him addressing a mammoth crowd of political supporters even if he was talking to a dozen or two touts and thugs and market men and women selling their simple wares.

Fake news has drastically reduced the believability quotient of many discerning consumers of information and pieces of intelligence. It has brought enormous harm on the media, be they traditional or modern. This is the pain the media as a whole and the social media in particular are labouring under today from the spread of the virus. Since the wares which the media take to the market is news and pieces of intelligence, when a fake brand of that ware is also in circulation, consumers will necessarily have to be wary in embracing anything dished out there even what is published or broadcast from an otherwise credible medium is the gospel truth. And who can blame them?

And who are the main victims of the fake news virus? As things stand today, it is difficult to say it is the media, governments, political actors, businesses or the average man. The truth is: everyone is a ‘main’ victim. Wariness on the part of information consumers and loss of credibility in the media may make it look as if the media are the greatest victims. But this is not the entire truth when the issue is looked at more critically.

To me, even purveyors of fake news are themselves great victims. As my boss and mentor, Prince Tony Momoh used to tell us in the good old days of the original Daily Times, when you cast/slant headlines that  intentionally or unintentionally  set the nation on fire and there is ensuing commotion, nobody will wait to read your newspaper! Everyone will have a conversation with his feet and your newspaper house may even be set ablaze leading to the loss of your means of livelihood!

It is universally acknowledged that information is power and I wish to add here that correct information is a great armament with which one can arm himself to deal with the various challenges of especially the modern life where you need information for your health, business, day-to-day protection, political decision-making and achievement of your life’s goals. When, therefore, everyone becomes unsure of the authenticity of the information he is getting or he proceeds to act on false information, anarchy is let loose on a land or a world. The falconer will not be able to hear the falconer.

Perhaps, the most devastating harm which fake news deliberately brewed to sow seeds of hatred in a fragile society such as ours does is that it does not allow a people to come together to forge a common front to confront their common development challenges.

It is, no doubt, in light of all these and many more, that the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday July 11, launched a campaign against fake news. Whatever our political disposition or alignment not see that call for a war against false or injurious news as the government’s efforts to defend itself against its opponents or rivals. Rather, it seeks to draw attention the attention of all to a phenomenon in which everyone, whether big or small, powerful or powerless, can be a witting or unwitting victim.

A good media is supposed to, among others, set agenda for the society. And given that, as we have seen, the media can be and has been a purveyor as well as victim of fake news, it is sensible to say that the media should be the first group to embrace the gospel being preached by Information Minister, Lai Mohammed and his team against fake news. What must it do? It must become more circumspect about the information from the field or other sources which it dishes out to the public.

The Nigerian media, especially in the countdown to the 2019 elections must be more alert or watchful than before because of the palpable tension in the air created largely by false news and other factors in the polity. When I meditate on the things happening in my country today, I simply shudder because it looks like Nigeria is a country that has been wired and multiple trigger fuses are in the hands of diverse persons of desperate temperaments. Anyone of them can deliberately or accidentally trigger a conflagration at the slightest of provocations.

But what role can we the ordinary people play in the war against fake news? I wish to humbly recommend my small personal example to other compatriots. I am a fairly voracious reader. On a daily basis, I consume most of the news and commentaries in the print medium and virtually everything dished out by my ‘friends’ on facebook and WhatsApp. Yet, and as my ‘friends’ will themselves confess, I never forward or share any incendiary or hate-dripping information to anyone. As rule, the things I take delight in sharing are things that will build faith in God, historical and well written pieces that will enlighten and information on health and those that will promote financial intelligence, a thing we greatly need in this nation and the continent of Africa as a whole.

I believe that if one is not a manufacturer of fake news, he will do right if he is also not its disseminator. Liking a suspected piece of fake news and worse- sharing it – will make one an accessory after the fact of a crime.

The standard operating rule for all Nigerians in the face of the horrendous unleashing of fake news is that we must not rush to believe any and every story and share it. We must take our time to establish its authenticity. And for media gate-keepers, this is the time to remember the training we got in school or in-house which repeatedly told us that when in doubt, leave out. It is better for you to miss a particular story because you obeyed a time tested teaching that when in doubt leave out than to publish or air a story that turns out to be false and which also inflicts some damage on your organisation’s reputation and on the larger society out there.

Some scholars have taught that fake news is not new. They say it is as old as man himself; that it, in fact, started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were misled by Satan to disobey God and they were consequently driven out of the garden. Now that this virus has become even more devastating on society, it must be fought before it triggers a war of annihilation on the human family.

Alibi wrote this piece from Abuja