FAKE NEWS: An Opinion of a Citizen

” Fake news are news or pronouncements, that are disguised as facts, but they have the purpose to influence people’s opinions in a certain direction”

This is what fake news is for German history student, Roberta. I have asked her to meet me in the faculty of History of Munich – a place she is familiar with, and a place for the truth about the world to be studied. I have asked Roberta for a meeting because I am curious to know, how an ordinary citizen of Germany deals with fake news in media. I find this topic especially interesting with the European election coming up – an election that generates all kinds of attention from all kinds of media. We already know, that fake news were present, both during The Brexit campaign, and also, perhaps most famously, during the US Election 2016. Should we fear Fake News in the European Election of 2019 as well?

From a personal point of view Roberta doesn’t fear, that her vote could be affected by fake news. However, she still doesn’t dismiss the idea, that fake news may influence the European Election in Germany in some way or another. She believes, that fake news could become a problem, especially in proportion to people who are against Europe, like the German party AfD: ”(Fake news) have a high possible of influencing people from certain political (right) wings”. She compares the possibility of fake news interfering with the European Election of 2019 with the Brexit-campaign, but states, that the influence of fake news could never be as bad as in the 2016 US Election. 

During the interview, I introduce Roberta to a statement from Facebook. The message of Facebook rans, that citizen should be better in detecting Fake News themselves, instead of relying completely on Social Media Companies to solve the problem. When I asked Roberta to comment on the statement of Facebook, her answer was torn: 

“On the one hand, it should be Facebooks responsibility, and on the other hand, it’s a global world that makes it hard to find someone, or a company, that is responsible, like Facebook. (Facebook) are right to a certain point, because, of course people have to find out themselves, but on the other hand, Facebook should have an algorithm, that finds Fake News before they even get spread. It should be their responsibility as well”

I end my interview a lot more informed than I started. First of all, I feel positively surprised, that German citizen Roberta doesn’t fear for her own vote to be influenced by Fake News during the European Election of 2019. 

But still — why shouldn’t fake news become a treat to the upcoming election, as we have seen it before in Britain, as well as in the United States?

Roberta doesn’t either dismiss the possibility of Fake News influencing the 2019 European Election to some extent and believes people on the political right-wing to be most vulnerable to such kind of influence.However, to prevent that to happen Roberta present a solution to the problem. That solution states, that citizen in general should take matters into their own hands and become better in spotting fake news in media. Yet, citizens should not stand alone. 

Facebook and Social Media companies are, regarding to Roberta, not free from responsibility and should be better in preventing the spreading of fake news on their platforms. It seems like, from Roberta’s point of view, that we should all cooperate to prevent the power and the spreading of fake news. Let the words of Roberta stand out as a call for action, both aimed at the citizens as well as the media companies.