Controlling “Fake News” — A Dangerous Idea?

Recently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said his company would begin to tackle fake news which apparently consciously misinformed users and were monetised by people behind the scenes hosting the websites in order to generate advertisement revenue.

While this appears to be a noble goal at first glance, at second glance, it becomes glaringly obvious how dangerous this proposal is and whatthis would mean for users — and even public opinion. For who declares what “fake” content indeed is, what shall be deemed as “fake” in the future, and who guarantees that this won’t undermine alternative media? Meanwhile, Google, too, declared they would commit to try to de-monetise fake news sites. With the two most influential internet companies now bound to control content more and more, it remains to be seen how the fallout of these actions will be and how non-mainstream media will fare under these restrictions. This comes only months after Google de-monetised Youtube videos with “controversial” content which was deemed problematic for advertisers, thus threatening content creators, especially those with political channels.

As with all user-created content, especially those users that have become small businesses over the years, intrusive restrictions can be potentially devastating to the site experience and even to the livelihood of those who create the content and have come to rely on the additional income. It appears as though traditional media sources which are deemed respectful are now supposed to get an edge over alternative media. With politicians such as German chancellor Angela Merkel calling for a debate on internet censorship in favour of tackling “opinion manipulation”, the danger of absolute opinion control by mainstream media is imminent. With opinions and the political narrative held by very, the question remains: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”