When he first heard Pope Francis would visit North Macedonia, the birthplace of the world’s most famous Catholic nun Mother Teresa, Marinko Pinjuh thought it was “fake news”. Like many of his fellow Catholics, the waiter said he is equally puzzled and delighted to welcome the pontiff to their tiny country on Tuesday. Catholics account […]
fake news
Polio and fake news
Pakistan has fought the battle against polio for decades. Along the way, it has made significant progress, but the state has still repeatedly failed to stamp out the disease once and for all. Today, Pakistan is one of the only three remaining countries where the disease continues to be a problem. A number of explanations […]
Nine arrested in Thailand for posting election ‘fake news’
Nine people have been arrested in Thailand for spreading “fake news” on Facebook with posts about sacked election officials and bogus ballots in the wake of controversial polls in the kingdom. Junta-ruled Thailand held its first vote since a 2014 coup on Sunday, with a military-backed party and its main rival linked to a self-exiled […]
64 pc Indians encounter fake news online: Survey
Fake news continues to be a growing menace in India, which has seen the most number of fake news incidents compared to anywhere else in the world. A report by Microsoft found that around 64 percent of Indians had encounter fake news, compared to the global average of 57 percent. Meanwhile, 54 percent of Indian […]
Taliban confront fake news and social media in propaganda war
The Taliban’s official spokesman now tweets real-time updates about battlefield operations and its media arm stays in direct contact with journalists on a range of messaging apps Fighting “fake” news, wrestling with social media, and deploying an intern army — the Taliban’s sprawling propaganda machine embraces modernity even as the group vows to enforce Islamist […]
False news online travels faster than the truth: study
False information on the internet travels faster than the truth, researchers said Thursday. But contrary to popular belief, it is largely people who spread the misinformation, not robots. The report in the journal Science is the largest of its kind to date, and studied some 126,000 cascades on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. These contested […]
Awami Workers Party – Political dialogues: Democratizing the digital
The ultimate question is how will we use technology? Can we exit the isolation of screaming alone in a closed room or preaching to the choir in a cacophony of repetitive echo chambers in a World at War with ideas? Shahzaib Raja presented a comprehensive talk on the internet and democracy. Forty four million now […]
‘Awam’ app launched to challenge menace of fake news
LAHORE: Media Matters for Democracy (MMFD) has launched an app called ‘Awam’ – a citizen journalist platform aimed at highlighting unreported stories and to provide reliable information at the community level. ‘Awam’ is a digital tool to facilitate citizens to generate multimedia journalism content, particularly on the local governance issues of their communities, and […]