Sharing with Responsibility on Social Networks: Avoid Mass Dissemination of Lies and Ignorance

Reliance on unverified sources and unverified reporting and forwarding on social networks have made them a platform for the mass dissemination of ignorance and lies. See for instance some of the Fake Quotes making rounds on the internet: 

Level of scholarship of educated people has now decreased to such an extent that they are willing to share what suits their perceptions without critical analysis. They are now sharing unverified ignorance and lies on a mass scale.

With the decrease on reliance on edited content by sources that have credibility, news travelling on the internet are becoming a  menace. This is especially true on Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and elsewhere where the attribution of the statement to a person or a credible source can no longer be traced. It requires extensive analytics to trace a report to its originator. There have now been several studies regarding this phenomenon of fake news. 

Even cable/media channels of news organizations spread false reports on air/media which never appears on the print versions of the same organization. The regret about airing an incorrect news on the media is not seen. Unlike in the printed versions of their newspapers where they have to retract the story with the regrets. Hence, the credibility of a printed is more.

We now need to define what is a credible source and how to tell people whether what they are sharing is credible or not.

Charter of Sharing with Responsibility

  1. Any picture with a quote or message should identify the source
  2. Before sharing, search the internet for a credible stable website page link. 
  3. The website must have an owner that can be contacted. 
  4. It must have a link to at least a stable website page link. Facebook posts vanish in history and can not be traced. Facebook/Twitter websites live in the present and now. They do not give access to who said what and when in a manner that can be traced. 

Quran and Hadith Injunctions Against Spreading of False News and Slander

See Also: 



Comments

  1. Sir, welcome to pre-post-internet era!

  2. This serves the purpose Dr Sahab. JazakAllah.

  3. This serves the purpose Dr Sahab. JazakAllah.

  4. what do you mean pre-post era?

  5. I think we need to mount a concerted campaign where we inform our facebook friends that you should not forward any thing without verifying. We should be also careful in this regard

  6. Excellent references Sir

  7. Please do some research and send me some more so that I can put them here for investigating the source of quotes

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *