Digital revolution and fake news

• Main Author: Ahmad Farouk, Azeem Fazwan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sun Media Corporation Sdn. Bhd. 2017
• Subjects: H61-97 Policy sciences
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/37253/1/Digital_revolution_and_fake_news.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/37253/; http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/07/18/digital-revolution-and-fake-news
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

HE digital revolution and its instantaneous short-term benefits have been celebrated and sold to mankind by peddlers of technology as a blessing in our march towards greater efficiency and productivity. This, it is argued, will fulfil our increasing lust for greater material rewards. What technopreneurs do not tell us is the negative effects of digital revolution. The negative effects include a black market in computerised extortion, the rise in depression and the spread of fake news. The spread of fake news is insidious because it can wreak havoc in our social and political lives. It is said that we are living in a post-truth era that is characterised by the eclipse of objective facts. Put in another away, in the post-truth era, objective facts will be less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. What is appalling about the rise of fake news is that we do not have the intellectual tools to differentiate truth from lies.