Fighting Over Fake News: Social Media Without Objectivity

We all like to think that our opinions matter; especially when we have facts, statistics, or examples to back up our thoughts, and there’s a possibility that we might sway people toward our perspective.

This is the foundation of conversation, after all. At least, the interesting kind. The kind that leads to expanded thoughts and passionate discourse, followed by evidence that’s supported by science and logic. The kind of conversations that we used to have.

These days, everyone online seems angrier than ever. No matter which side of the fence you’re sitting on, regardless of the issue, it seems that everyone is ready to duke it out at the slightest disagreement, and always to the death (or to the blocking, unfriending, or unfollowing, as it were).

From vaccines and masks to political candidates and movie reviews, social media has been the proving ground for Boomers, GenX, Millennials, and Gen Zers for years. But now, in Canada, things have taken a dramatically different turn.

The Online News Act

In June 2023, the Canadian government passed the Online News Act. This act requires platforms and search engines like Meta and Google to negotiate with news publishers in order to license their content for publication.

When the act was first proposed, it was trumpeted as a way to ensure news outlets are compensated for their content. Sounds fair, right? People should be compensated for their work. But what happens when a government removes the ability for a person to discover news?

The Online News Act signals the end of free speech and objective discourse on social media platforms for Canadians. It may sound a bit alarmist, but frankly, we should all be paying more attention.

The Canadian government has quietly taken away our ability to have fact-driven debates online on places like Facebook and Instagram. Just because a bargaining framework exists (because of the Online News Act), doesn’t mean that the tech giants have to use it.

Initially, both Meta and Google decided they would no longer serve Canadian news content up to their respective audience.

The impact was immediate. When the panicked population of Northern BC was being ravaged by wildfires in summer of 2023, people who searched Google for the latest news or evacuation orders in their town could find no local news to help guide them.

3 weeks prior to the full implementation of the act (also called Bill C-18), Google stepped up to the plate. In November 2023, the tech behemoth came to an agreement to end its filtering out Canadian news sources in a $100 million dollar deal.

Meta took a different approach. It has banned all news links from both Facebook and Instagram. In September of 2023, Meta rejected a bid by the Canadian government to clarify the Online News Act.

In turn, this significantly reduced the web traffic and overall discoverability of media outlets big and small, effectively cutting Canadians off from their own news sources being shared on both those platforms.

The Tip of the Zuckerberg

Last weekend, I was scrolling through social media, and I noticed a friend of mine on Facebook (I’ll never call it Meta) had posted a meme image that looked like a movie poster.

FERNGULLY was written across the poster in broad letters. Having been a big fan of the 1992 original, I was quite excited. My friend was clearly stoked too.

In my jubilation, I rushed to Google, so I could find out more information about the film’s production. Unfortunately, Snopes.com (one of the internet’s best places for crediting/discrediting online rumors) immediately popped up showing that this rumor was false.

As a courtesy, I copied the link and was going to drop it into my friend’s post. Immediately, Facebook notified me that I was not allowed to post any news-related links on the platform. This was not CNN or Fox News, gang. This was Snopes, the place where much of the internet goes for unbiased rumor fact-checking.

Whether or not you believe in the validity of Snopes, or any other information outlet on the internet, this is a massive red flag. We’ve crossed a line, one that we may never be able to come back from. A great divide, if you will.

Meta had no issue with the original account posting false information in a meme, claiming it as truth. They had no issue with my friend sharing the post from the original posting, spreading the false rumor.

And yet, as soon as I tried to point out that this was unfortunately untrue, I was shut down at every turn.

Pandora’s Inbox

I know, I know… this was just a fake movie poster. No harm to anyone, whether it’s true or not. I get that. But this is just the beginning.

What happens the next time someone is able to share information about the Earth being flat? Or shape-shifting reptiles hiding as members of the government and corporate America?

Sure, these are extreme examples, but they’re already online. They’re so ridiculous, it’s easier to identify them as fake. However, we’re starting to see more concerning examples of this trend already making their way onto social platforms.

All you have to do is look at the Kate Middleton discourse that was circulating online, prior to her releasing a video announcing her cancer diagnosis. All of the photo edits and rumors about death and divorce were quickly replaced by questions about the authenticity of the video announcement.

Another great example is the incredible amount of misinformation that was shared about the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. A tragic accident was quickly spun into some kind of weirdly specific domestic terrorism and government conspiracy.

This is misinformation pandering at its finest, and the government, alongside these social platforms, are taking away the only real tools we have as individuals to combat this epidemic of inaccuracy.

Let’s look at this from another angle. Back in 2002, the Woman’s Health Initiative (WHI) published a study about the impact of hormone therapy on people with menopause, in an effort to continue exploring ways that women can access beneficial treatments for symptoms of menopause.

The media got ahold of a statistic almost immediately and started sharing it all over the news. And yet, instead of sharing this information with relative context, the media simply told the world that there was a 26% increase in breast cancer for women using hormone therapy - the news has always been imperfect. At the time, social media was not nearly as pervasive as it is today, and the public took the stat at face value, and that was that.

In 2024, we know that this was misconstrued information, but the damage that announcement made to the approach of practitioners in treating menopause symptoms, took years to come back from.

Think about what would happen today if a similar situation occurred, but instead of television or radio news, the announcement was shared on social media. Yes, the great minds in science would be able to question the findings further, elaborate on the nuance or the study. But, the comment sections on every single news or social media site would be an absolute dumpster fire of arguments, rage bait headlines, hot takes, personal experiences, and questioning the very science of the study itself.

It’s already challenging enough to distinguish between fact and fiction. While YouTube is a place where you can find some educational information, it can be tricky for the average viewer to discern the difference between an entertaining presentation of facts, and a blatant conspiracy theory.

The question becomes - how do we collectively stop ourselves and protect the younger generations from being sucked into social media platforms driven by misinformation echo chambers? How do we keep the facts on the front page?

So, What Can We Do?

Due to the new Online News Act, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Sometimes, we have to hit the bottom before we can bounce back.

With that said, here’s six things that I think we can all do to start combating the tsunami of misinformation online:

Be aware of the challenges in media and aim to become more media literate. This way, you can help prevent yourself from being sucked into it. We all have echo chambers online that we want to believe in, but it’s our responsibility to diversify the places we get our information from. You can’t get all your data from the same place.
Do your research, and not just from YouTube University or the college of TikTok. Use credible, unbiased sources. And yes, that means subscribing to and supporting your local media outlets. We cannot allow unchecked, editorialized resources to become our only source of perspective.
Don’t believe everything you see online. We’ve come a LONG way since Photoshop could make reasonably credible fake images. With new AI video and image editing/creation tools coming out of the woodworks every couple of months, even amateurs can create convincing propaganda content to fit virtually any agenda or ideology.
Report posts you know are fake. Report groups that consistently share misinformation. Don’t share information online until you’ve done your own due diligence.
Speak up and fact-check your kids. They take their beliefs back online with them, and if you can help better inform them offline with facts and proof, they can take that knowledge back with them to their respective circles.
Call on your government representatives to re-engage in negotiations with Meta. Like it or not, social media has changed our news consumption habits. Millennials and GenZ do not sit down en masse for the 6 o’clock news like the Boomers did.

For citizens to make responsible, informed choices, we must have access to find, read, and share media. Access to news helps us avoid acting out of ignorance or buying into the flood of misinformation.

Don’t Feed the Divide

Keeping an open mind and being willing to change our opinions is a wonderful part of the human experience. It allows us to grow as individuals and evolve intellectually. It should be a point of pride, not shame.

The more we allow these platforms to remove points of civil discussion, contention, and growth, the less we will continue to progress as people.

Worse yet, this divides us into bubbles; allowing for fewer and fewer ways to connect meaningfully with one another. When we can’t connect, we distance ourselves. When we can’t compromise, we fight.

With the Online News Act, the ways our social tools used to fact check one another have been taken away. It’s up to us to do what we can; we elected the people making these decisions.

The US has already taken measures to control TikTok. In fact, Congress recently passed a bill that will force TikTok’s parent company to either sell to an approved buyer, or it will be banned from use. It’s not just ‘banned’, as the clickbait titles have claimed.

This may sound proactive, but is it just another means through which a government is seeking to control the information being shared on social media?

We’re Not Passed the Point of No Return… Yet

Social media was designed to bring us together. And yet, the the purpose it seems to serve best recently is to instead widen the divide between beliefs in every possible debate.

We can get back to a place where conversations are based in facts, civility, and most importantly, respect. It’s just going to take some serious work, and a lot of us working together towards the same goals.

Keep your eyes open. Be aware. Keep challenging yourself, as much as you challenge others. Remember: no one knows everything. We have to keep educating ourselves, even if the information we find contradicts what we already believe to be true.

It’s the only way we can get back on the path to being a society driven by intellectualism, science-supported facts, and personal growth, instead of one driven by this senseless need to be ‘right’ all the time.