The Ministery of the Interior of the Czech Republic is launching a special unit that will browse the internet and look for so called "fake news" websites. They will then fact check the articles published on these sites and expose them publicly. The world is in a weird place right now, and due to the great popularity of social platmorms such as Twitter and Facebook, many people tend to read and share telic falsehoods about controversial subjects such as migrants and conspiracy theories. The idea of this unit is to stop these things being spread.
The Czech Republic although not an ex-soviet country has a big problem with russian propaganda. At least thats wha a great deal of state officials have claimed. Looking at the Russia´s interfierence in the recent presidential elections in the US, it is fair to say, that that is clearly possible. A regular Czech citizen (and surely any other citizen) encounters fake news on daily basis.
It is quite natural, that if you have a certain oppinion or attitude towards something you will happily share that respective article without bothering to factcheck it. If I believe that money growns on trees, and I see a headline "Experts find money growing trees, economy of XY shoots up!" I will inform all my friends of this fact and since its 2017, I will share the article on Facebook. That is the reason why April fool day is so popular. Because people tend to be fooled from time to time. (Hence the spagetti-growing trees April fool joke ages ago). But how often do people behave like fools? Does society need a government unit that will tell you what the truth is?
"Dont believe everything you see on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln. I have seen people actually sharing this quote with Abe Lincoln´s name attached to it. Several times. Sure, some of them might have shared it for the banter, but I assure you the majority really believe Lincoln said this. Nevermind the fact that there was no internet in Lincoln´s time. So, if people can share nonsence like this, what stopps them from sharing serious fake news headlines like "African migrants riot and fight the police in France" with a video attached. Video of different people doing something completely different in a different country. I got in an argument the other with my friend about this. Took my 5 minutes on Google to prove him wrong. I´m not saying above mentioned events don´t happen, what I´m saying is people don´t seem to care if what the read is true.
So yes, I agree with the government on that note. Most people do. But with politicians being one of the least respected people in the Czech society (sad yet true), will their verdict on something being true help the situation or will it, more likely, be counter productive? Ivan Bartoš, the leader of the Czech Pirate Party, calls this new unit "Ministery of Truth", obviously reffering to the fictional ministery in George Orwell´s 1984. And to quote the man himself: "As long as person´perception of the truth can be externally verified, then even a lie can become truth.".
It will certainly be interesting to watch how this unit tackles the problem, but I expect this anti fake-news squad to be dissmissed once a new government comes to office.
PS.: Did you check whether the Orwell quote was real?
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