Some shocking revelations came to light during a televised discussion about the recently-implemented “partnering” of social media giant Facebook with Rappler and Vera Files. Under this “partnership” Rappler and Vera Files will be “fact checking” what Filipinos share over Facebook which utterly dominates social media activity in the Philippines thanks to exclusive “free data” (unmetered data carriage) deals with the country’s biggest telco and internet service providers (ISPs). Invited to discuss this “partnership” in the show was Ellen Tordesillas who represents Vera Files and De La Salle University (DLSU) Political Science Professor Antonio Contreras.
Asked by ANC Early Edition host Ian Esguerra what working definition of the term “fake news” will be applied in the “fact checking” work they will be doing for Facebook, Tordesillas stammered out an incoherent thought stream in response. An annotated excerpt of the discussion can be found here.
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It was quite evident that Tordesillas had no working definition of “fake news” to work with and was merely bluffing her way (unsuccessfully) through Esguerra’s line of questioning. This is disturbing considering that Facebook, the Philippines’ virtual social media monopoly, will be under the “fact check” governance of these ill-prepared people of now-evident questionable qualifications who are set to apply incoherent (possibly non-existent) frameworks to guide their judgement.
Indeed, the subject of a generally-accepted definition of “fake news” formed the core of a challenge to the inclusion of one of our satellite blogs GRPundit in the list of “Philippine Fake News Sites” put on Wikipedia by a certain Carlos Nazareno (a.k.a. @object404 on Twitter). The challenge directed at the “editors” of that page is documented in my article Editors of the Wikipedia list of Philippine “fake news” sites are not experts on “fake news” where I argue…
What makes the NUJP [an] authority on “fake news”? They use the term loosely and apply it to GRPundit. But accepted definitions of fake news, say from the Collins Dictionary which [defines “fake news” as] “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting” are very clear. GRPundit is an opinion blog that does not pretend to be a news site. You cannot siumply “lean toward” a judgment on GRPundit when (1) there is no compelling evidence and (2) the site itself does not fall within the accepted definition of “fake news”.
The infantile manner with which the “editors” of that Wikipedia page handled the challenge leaves a lot to be desired. And that is after an actual working definition of the term “fake news” was tabled in the dialogue. Imagine a similar scenario but this time at the industrial scale required to “fact check” the entire Filipino community of Facebook users!
These episodes highlight the whole trouble with “thought leaders” who lack the right thinking skills to ply their trade. Thinking skills don’t involve rocket science. In fact, they are built around a 500-year-old concept called none other than the scientific method. One of the core fundamentals of this method is first defining or framing a problem clearly before proceeding to the solutioneering part. At that step alone, wannabe “fact checker” Ellen Tordesillas fails miserably.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Two ideas:
1. Someone should edit that idiotic Wikipedia page on fake news and they should add this video of Tordesillas as one of the sources.
2. Keep sharing this video of her on Facebook, and let’s see if it’ll get labelled “fake.”
Fake News are just false information that describe, the local and international happenings. False information may include, the exclusion of some parts of the news; or the inclusion of false information, to the news, to further political or personal agendas.
Covert operatives of international intelligence agencies, call this: disinformation.” EDSA revolution” is the example pf Fake News, or U.S./C.I.A. disinformation, to oust the late Pres. Marcos, Sr., and to put Cory Aquino, as Philippine President. Extra Judicial killings of 7,000 Filipinos, claimed by Leni Robredo, thru the international media, is the example of Fake News, coming from a local opposition, to destabilize the administration of Pres. Duterte.
Opinions Web sites are different from News sites. Although, there are opinion Web sites, that have combination of News sites. GRP Web blog site is the example of an Opinion Web Site.
Mainstream media are mainly News Sites. FaceBook is a combination of Opinion Web site and News Web site.
I don’t believe in Fact Checking News Sites. What they publish, and what they cannot publish. If the Fact Checker will become biased, or a paid fact checker, or is even ignorant, like Ellen Tordesillas. Then, we will be back to the propaganda machine era of Aquino era again.
Let the readers, decide, what is Fake News, and True News; Falsehood/Biased in opinions and Truth in opinions. False information or True information. We, are all mature enough to have decision of our own. We are not children.
There should never be any “fact checker”. One way or the other, that checker will tend to lean on one side. Nobody’s impartial nowadays, especially on political issues. You’re correct, Sir, let the readers decide and believe on what he/she wants to believe in.
“factcheckable” haha. New word.
The internet connects us all and provides this fabulous fact-checking mechanism, and yet at the same time, the power of lies is conveyed much more efficiently now because they’re accepted so fast.