Position Paper
Fight against fraudulent products and Fake News
Mika Rübsam (3722511)
“When fake news is preferred over evidence-
based and proofed guidelines, it can have
grievous consequences for the population.”
Definition of fake news: “Fake news are false
stories that appear to be news, spread on the
internet or using other media, usually created
to influence political views or as a joke. These
appear in the form of articles, images or videos
which are disguised as real news and aim to
manipulate people’s opinions.” (Ionos, 2020;
Cambridge Dictionary)
Who is affected? – Basically, everyone that can
form an own opinion and engage with media
information streams
Where does fake news appear? – Fake News
happen everywhere at any time since every
person can spread fake news. It appears the
most frequently in social media.
Why right now? -Due to fake news, many
people questioned the virus’s existence and
demonstrated about the Covid-19 restrictions.
This makes it easier for fake news to find a
foothold in the society and their opinions.
Example of fake news: Drinking water every 15
minutes protects you from o Covid-Infection.
Vitamin C is a higher dose kills the virus.
Nicotine protects you against a Covid-19
disease. (München Klinik, 2020)
1. Fake news about Corona makes people sick.
While the virus is spreading very fast, the fake
news about it are spreading much faster. This
leads to people underestimating the impact of
the virus. Especially social media leads to
people forwarding fake news to friends and
family without checking the source or looking
for fraud. Example: A surgeon thinks the
governments restrictions are exaggerated and
tells this to his family, who trust him because
he is a doctor and studied medicine. Result: A
Fake Fact spreads around communities and
people endanger themselves with the higher
risk of getting infected. (Murray, 2021)
2. Spreading fake news on social media to
perplex society.
When sharing information online, people tend
to give things very small scrutiny. People are
inclined to share bad news, and a lot of news
related to Covid-19 are bad. For this purpose,
so-called “bots” are used. Which automatically
generate and support content. This increases
the frequency and volume of certain posts,
which leads to less scrutiny regarding the fake
news. Due to the high amount and influence of
“bots” it is difficult for legit users to distinguish
between a fake profile with fake news and a
real profile. (PwC, 2021)
3. How to break the fake news chain.
Here are five hints on how to break the fake
news chain:
1. Establish whether you have indeed
come across fake information.
2. If you have come across fake news, do
not engage with it.
3. If it was shared on social media, report
the post to the platform. If you know
the person, tell them that the
information is likely false.
4. Contribute to sharing official
information, share updates from
trustworthy, official websites that
report on Covid-19.
(Europol, 2020)
Conclusion
Fake news is becoming a big problem in the
modern digital society. It is hard to prevent and
causes insecurity, confusion, and incredibility
in wrong parties, especially in Covid-19 times.
Everyone is affected by it and plays its role to
the fight against fake news, as they occur
everywhere, mostly on social media platforms.
In current times, fake news rapidly finds a
foothold in the society and reach their targets,
due to the insecurity of people. By spreading
fake news on Covid-19, people get less
cautious, and the virus gets top spread further.
The social media platforms make it easy to
spread fake news, as fake accounts cam be
used to clearly underline a certain message and
thus make even more people aware of this
misinformation. Everyone can be able to
identify fake news by following simple steps, to
check recent news for authenticity.
Action Plan for European Commission
Everybody, especially the European
Commission must become aware of the big
impact and danger of fake news. This danger
needs to be defended by a united entity of
people and the government, otherwise the
population will suffer from the spread of fake
news and also the virus. Therefore, every
country should contribute in the fight against
fraudulent news and products. The following
three paragraphs include an action plan for the
European Commission on how to stop the
spread of fake news.
1. Educate the population on the identification
of fake news.
The most important measure is to educate
everyone affected on how to identify fake
news. The government can reach every single
individual and therefore has a greater chance
on preventing fake news and its spreading.
Then, People can recognize fake news and do
not spread it but report it and reduce the
danger for the population.
2. Cooperate with social media companies in
the fight against fake news.
The social media platforms do have the most
influence and includes the biggest danger in
the race of fake news. Fake news can be rapidly
spread through fake profiles with botted
content and frequencies, completely
anonymously right into the timeline of “real”
people and profiles. Social media companies
should work together with IT experts and the
government to create an algorithm that
automatically detects fake news, reports and
deletes it from the platform.
3.Tougher Punishments on the spreaders of
fake news
The consequences of fake news clearly state
that the spread and creation of fake news
should be punished more. Currently, there is
no real sanction against this and basically
creates a “grey-zone”, which means fake news
can be put on the internet without any criminal
action being taken. A new legal situation has to
be established.
References
Cambridge Dictionary (no date) fake news,
Cambridge Dictionary. Available at:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/e
nglish/fake-news (Accessed: 6 June 2021).
Europol (no date) COVID-19: Fake News,
Europol. Available at:
https://www.europol.europa.eu/covid-
19/covid-19-fake-news (Accessed: 6 June
2021).
Ionos (2020) Was sind Fake News? Definition,
Typen und Erkennungsmethoden, IONOS
Digitalguide. Available at:
https://www.ionos.de/digitalguide/online-
marketing/social-media/was-sind-fake-news/
(Accessed: 6 June 2021).
München (no date) Coronavirus - Fake-News,
Gerüchte, Lügen zu COVID-19, München Klinik.
Available at: https://www.muenchen-
klinik.de/covid-19/fake-news/ (Accessed: 6
June 2021).
Murray, A. (2021) Fake News in the Age of
COVID-19, Faculty of Business and Economics.
Available at:
https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/fake-
news-in-the-age-of-covid-19 (Accessed: 6 June
2021).
PricewaterhouseCoopers (no date) Fake News
und Social Bots, PwC. Available at:
https://www.pwc.de/de/technologie-medien-
und-telekommunikation/fake-news-und-
social-bots.html (Accessed: 6 June 2021).