Combat Fake News
Information Literacy
Dear Colleagues in Ethiopia:
You are in the trenches fighting, toiling and educating the new generation. I and many like me are not there to help. I have been following the entire situation in Ethiopia from all directions. I observe the following
- Information is consumed and applied at face value — Students, and in general young people don’t analyze information and they appear to have no clue about the consequence information sharing
- The situation on the ground appears to be influenced by social media. It is full of real looking fake materials.
I spend a lot of my free time on social media and I witnessed that even highly educated users indulge in entertaining fake news and highly edited real looking photoshoped and AI enhanced materials.
The seriousness of the situation
Ethiopia spends the money it does not have to train its young people , only to be stolen by social media that orients them to shoot against Ethiopia. I have read lots of excerpts of interviews and communiques by high level officials, one idea that is being floated is to penalize the social medial owners for carrying fake destabilizing information. I hope this happens soon.
What we should do
While this is ongoing we need a massive formal and informal education on effective use of social media. Each responsible social media user should help his/her followers navigate the sea of information coming to them. Here is what I advised my followers. It may be useful to your students and you may consider sharing it. With the help of my colleagues I will develop this note further, and translate it into all indigenous languages and distribute throughout Ethiopian schools, colleges and universities.
Abebe Kebede-to my social media followers
Your “news” sources: You have four types of sources
- Personal opinions
- Branded sources (ESAT, OMN, WALTA, RIOT, Eskindir Nega)
- Government (EBC, Regionals)
- Neutrals (BBC, VOA, DW, et).
What to do ?
- Personal opinions are usually rehashes, gossips, and commonly accompanied with fake resources. THEY MUST BE IGNORED
- Branded sources are a little more measured and they know that they are accountable to the people they are serving. They are mostly accompanied with data but mostly exaggerated and misinterpreted. Remember their mission is to drive public opinion in their direction. The news and analysis from these sources should be consumed with care. Please Don’t take their news at face value, you must do additional reading to verify.
- Government sources only broadcast the news that pass through some censorship, and they are reliable sources for the positive news. Just as in the Branded news sources, don’t take Government news and analysis at their face value. You must do further reading and verify the news and the analysis.
- The neutrals are very good in reporting facts. It is my experience that I have not seen them lying to harm.
You have now three reliable sources to verify and cross check the news and analysis.
STEPS TO FOLLOW
- You get your exaggerated over pumped story from Branded news sources,
- The news is labeled or marketed as “Breaking News”- “Abebe Kebede turned into Monkey and the cause is the water he drank”- Source: Branded News Source (ESAT, OMN, RIOT, WALTA, Eskindir Nega etc)
- Go to Government Sources (EBC, FANA) to check if the same breaking news appears in their program
- Go to the Neutrals (BBC, VOA, DW) and check if the same news appears in their programs.
- Finally check if this is at all possible: Can a human turn into a monkey by drinking water ? Just do the research. Since this never happens report the fake news to Habesha News and Fact Checker