With the pace of our lives… you see something, you like it, you share it, you move on. It’s very fast moving, and sometimes maybe we don’t stop and think.
Stop and think before you share:
New advice for voters on disinformation, and for campaigners using generative AI
examples of election misinformation have included:
Fake news articles branded like a recognised news source with genuine journalists’ bylines
A campaigner for one of the political parties captured on a doorbell video camera in Birmingham and given fake captions for on online video
Campaigning literature designed to look like local newspapers.
And much more, especially AI generated images, etc....
Nothing you share is "breaking news" so just stop & think beforehand 😉
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have continued to distribute fake local newspapers promoting their candidates in the 2024 general election, despite criticism of the practice from media groups and journalists.
The Liberal Democrat examples all used newspaper-style names, for example the “Tunbridge Wells Telegraph”, the “West Dorset Courier”, the “North East Fife Gazette” or the “Harborough, Oadby & Wigston Herald”.
Amid the well-documented decline of local newspapers, the choice by political parties to dress election literature as though it were news is just bizarre and shows even politicians who might tell us to watch out for fake stuff are indeed pushing fake stuff
¯\(°_o)/¯
January the Society of Editors called for the practice of parties printing election newspapers to end, arguing it “damage[s] democracy and undermine[s] public trust in both politics and the news media”.
petition launched this year by fact-checkers Full Fact calling for an end to “deceptive campaign practices” — including both fake newspapers and ads that look like polling cards or final notices — received 17,730 signatures and was sent to the leaders of all the major parties.
https://fullfact.org/campaigns/petitions/end-deceptive-campaigning/faqs/
Press regulator Impress has also hit out at the ads, saying last year that “it is essential that the public are able to trust what they read… misleading the public with fake newspapers will only damage that trust”.
Earlier this year the Liberal Democrats published a page on its website acknowledging the criticisms, but defending the practice in principle
The party wrote: “Tabloid newspapers are an effective way of communicating with people and have been used by all political parties for decades… different people take in information in different formats, tabloids often reach people that different designs don’t.
In many parts of the country, the Lib Dem tabloid format is a well-established and trusted local brand in its own right.”
¯\(°_o)/¯
Fake news batters UK and France ahead of elections
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/07/02/fake-news-batters-uk-and-france-ahead-of-elections
Just think before sharing