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Fake news and Deputy Speaker

Nov 23, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Fake news is a global problem and its greatest facilitator is due to the enablers, more specifically, Facebook. It is estimated that Facebook has almost two billion ‘mindless’ users each day, who waste about an hour of their lives on their platform. Facebook is the largest, most engaged social media platform in the world. So, it is horrible, that Deputy Speaker and leader of the Liberty and Justice Party, Lennox Shuman, had to resort to this low, knowing fully well the potential trouble he was going to start.

The esteemed leader falsely stated a few days ago, that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), during the 2020 elections campaign, promised to increase salaries for public servants by 50 percent, but has delivered only seven percent across-the- board. This, as we all know, is and was never so. Shuman either acted in jest, hast, or ignorance. He, knowing the importance of his position and word, could and should have sought verification before making his post.

However, it is good that the alert and informed, instantly, after Shuman made his post, challenged the information presented, and severely castigating him for spreading misinformation, and thus, “Shuman subsequently removed the false information on his Facebook page.” However, some permanent damage was done.

I refer to a study into false memories that highlight the risks of “fake news” spreading via social media. This survey details how volunteers were shown fabricated news reports in the week before Ireland’s 2018 abortion law referendum. Nearly half of them subsequently claimed to have had prior memories of at least one of the made-up events detailed. Also, many failed to question their false recollections even after being told the articles that they had read might be fake. In other words, people still latched on to false information, even after clarity is given to dispel and debunk that which was falsified. What is frightening is that experts claim that it is difficult to “undo” spurious memories once they had been created. Why?

This is because “Memory is a reconstructive process and we are vulnerable to suggestion distorting our recollections, without our conscious awareness,” Dr. Gillian Murphy, of University College Cork, said.

Let me now point out a serious aftermath of this misinformation. It was repeated by leaders and supporters of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), and they are using it to seek to discredit the PPP/C. I doubt if they will help to ‘clear-up’ the and ‘clear-away’ the false news, and even if they do, not all will get the message, nor is anyone assured that the mind-set will change.

As expected, Shuman was rebuked and lambasted by some of his colleagues. Some even attacked him verbally. I think that Shuman should make an official apology. It is the most fitting thing to do. I point him to Mr. Harte, former News-Talk Editor-in-Chief, who explained that “You have got to be mindful that information, be it through government or through global (social media) giants, needs to be challenged. If you don’t have journalists, you don’t have fact checking, you don’t have credible brands delivering it and you are in danger of fake news becoming the norm.”

Yours truly,

Henry Singh

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