Hurricane Sifiso and the fake news problem
Fake news is not a new phenomenon; it's just more prominent now that there are more platforms to spread it
Let’s face it, social media is a blessing and a curse.
As much as it has made our lives much more convenient and simpler, it’s also given a platform for con artists and fake news.
This was evident during the recent storms which battered Durban. Social media was abuzz with reports of a hurricane hitting the East Coast; a hurricane named Sifiso. Poor Sifiso got the blame for what was just terrible weather. People didn’t stop to consider that Hurricanes were named alphabetically and so there was no way that the first one to hit Durban started with the letter S. The fake news would at least have been a bit more believable if the hurricane was named Andile.
Another question one has to ask is why the hurricane was named after Sifiso?
Why not Hurricane Gert or Hurricane Rajesh? Surely an African Hurricane wouldn’t have been on time. Hurricane Ria, on the other hand, would have been scowling and howling for a long time before it eventually struck, raining down shoes upon everyone in its path.
Fake news is not a new phenomenon; it’s just more prominent now that there are more platforms to spread it. The problem is that most people never bother to verify the news before broadcasting it again.
It’s easy to start a fake news broadcast. You just need a topic, which is easily believable and if you can manage it, a few pictures from a different country, which people will just assume is part of the story.
You then send it as a broadcast to your contacts, making sure you send it to that one contact you know will panic and forward it to all their contacts.
Then you sit back and wait to see how long your own fake story gets sent back to you from a concerned friend who just wants to warn you.
Why not spread fake news that the President is corrupt and only looking out for himself and his cronies? Send a fake broadcast saying that he has hundreds upon of hundreds of charges against him, but still smiles and addresses the nation as if he’s a model citizen.
Oh wait…I guess not all unbelievable stories are fake. He may not be Hurricane Zuma but the destruction he’s left behind will make you think otherwise.
