In recent times, it has come to my attention that technological media outlets have gained more popularity as a source for news, especially social media.
In the past, we have depended on sources such as newspapers, books, and radios to retrieve our news; but the issue with these media is they limited face-to-face communities in their easy and timely accessibility of incoming news. Thus, we have turned to technological sources like news-based sites, applications, and television channels as a means to quickly and easily obtain information.
Now more than ever, we depend on technology for news on day-to-day political, cultural, and societal issues in our country and around the world as we must isolate ourselves from face-to-face communication within our communities. This creates a constant yet intricate interaction between technological media and the public as news is widely spread, but also exposed to non-political media that participate in the disbursement of news that can modify its accuracy; the primary media being social media. Social media’s purpose is for users to create and share content, including ideas, thoughts, and opinions to network and make connections, enhancing freedom of speech. Therefore, although on one hand, social media is capable of providing true, authentic news as reliable news outlets such as The New York Times have platforms on these sites and applications, on the other hand, freedom of speech is a gateway to irrationality. Ideas, thoughts, and opinions are often created and shared impulsively and recklessly, thus ideas, thoughts, and opinions on the news are no exception. Reckless and impulsive speech creates a grand space for error, that being, the quick disbursement and receptiveness of false news before verification and validation from primary sources.
I am certainly troubled with how the individual receives information from social media because it shapes their opinion, thus shaping the public’s opinion, thus shaping the actions of the state through false news. Newspapers, and films, and research articles, and books in addition to social media all provide the public with conflicting pieces of information, preventing them from fully comprehending and articulating their needs for desired action on current issues.
However, it is important to clarify freedom of speech within social media does not immediately equate to false news; rather, it is the lack of education of consequence that causes selfishness of the individual that does. Efforts to eliminate fake news on social media sites consider regulating freedom of speech, such as by suspending accounts, an approach that borderline violates the public’s right to free speech. Therefore, instead of a holistic approach, a more meticulous strategy to eliminate fake news is education, especially in the child. Through education, in school, and in the family, the individual learns to be a human; to recognize their public responsibilities rather than focus on their private ambitions that can affect the public, for it is selfish to believe private actions only impact the parties involved. Education will not only better the public’s understanding that their actions have consequences, but also the effectiveness and liberty of those consequences. The comprehension of the capabilities of these consequences, then, limits selfishness.
With a variety of users on social media, it is simple to excuse one image, one video, one statement does no harm as it will likely only misfire on the individual who shared them — so they believe. But private thought regulates public ideas as misinformation and disinformation influences the opinions and beliefs of the public eye. By educating the individual to rationally create and share content, there is a form of regulation created in which the individual and the public hold themselves accountable for fake news and prevent its spread. Hence, the answer to eliminating fake news from social media sites does not lie between complete regulation of freedom of speech or the complete removal of formal limitations, but within self-regulation.