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Robert Ndlovu
According to Wikipedia, fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.

Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead in order to damage an agency, entity, or person, and or gain financially or politically, often using sensationalist, dishonest, or outright fabricated headlines to increase readership, online sharing, and Internet click revenue.

This kind of abuse is all over the world and not just restricted to less developed or less educated countries.

The exponential adoption of the internet in Zimbabwe is attributed to the availability of smartphones.

Once upon a time smartphones were very expensive and today you can get a “zhing zhong” with internet access for $30.

So what?
Well more and more people now have access to the internet which includes social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram just to mention a few.

It is very sad to note that while countries like Kenya and Burundi are making huge leaps and bounds in terms of productive use of ICTs, Zimbabwe in general is comfortable with Whatsapp and Facebook access.

In fact this is what the greater chunk of data bundles are used for.

Rumour and gossip loving nation we might as well be.

Now that there are more than six million people with social media access in Zimbabwe, it means there is a good market not only for advertising but for news and stories.

This has been a great development in the sense that no single entity has a monopoly on news as was the case around the 90s where only state owned papers and a few private media houses were the ones who decided what to publish when and how.

The internet especially the social media component “took” that monopoly away.

This is obviously good for any democracy.

But this has had unintended consequences.

Anyone anywhere can be a publisher.

Fifteen years ago 97 percent of people were news consumers.

That has changed.

Anyone can publish anything on social media platforms and online.

Some of these new era journalists are devoid of morals and professional ethics that comes with the territory.

This is a very ripe breeding ground for fake news.

It is very simple.

You think of an idea you type it and post it.

Add some spice and get some authentic picture online, “Photoshopping”.

As I mentioned earlier on almost everyone today has a smartphone.

Out of those six million people you can be rest assured that most people believe everything that they read on Facebook or Whatsapp word for word.

Having used and accessed the internet during an era when there were less than a thousand users in the country and a few million globally, at times I think it should have stayed that way.

The mental laziness exhibited by some of us in searching deeper to verify truths has given rise to what is known as professional news fakers.

In fact there is software or applications that anyone can download to help fake and publish news or stories en masse.

Fake news generators know that the average Zimbabwean is very easy to fool and will believe almost anything digital.

So politicians, businesses, special interest groups etc are able to fake news so that they get a certain reaction from the news readers.

Last week, I read online that some Matabeleland chiefs had turned down the vehicles they had been offered.

There were wild online celebrations on a number of forums and groups on social media.

But guess what it was a lie.

Last Friday, someone posted a fake Dynamos FC team’s Wikipedia page info that was very vulgar.

And guess what happened?

Bosso fans were naturally offended and started trading unprintable words.

So I googled Dynamos Wiki page and guess what I found?

There was no such vulgar language on the official Wiki page.

The fake news generator had edited and uploaded his own version of the logo and club information.

My point is because Zimbabweans are easy to fool, you can easily get them to fight literally over nothing.

This makes me think twice about Donald Trump’s remarks.

The objective of the fake poster was to create tension, anger and agitation between these two teams.

The rivalry has been there for years and not going anywhere any time soon.

But to try and incite sheepish social media news readers is almost treasonous.

This got me thinking that this thing about Zimbabwe being a highly literate nation was very questionable judging from the near zero IQ that some of us exhibit in believing everything that we read on social media.

How do you detect fake news?
It would be of no use scripting this article if I do not hint ways on how you detect fake news.

These are recommendations and not a rule of thumb.

Do not come back to me saying, “I followed your guide but the news was fake ok.”

(0) The first part is common sense which I am afraid is not so common.
(1) Consider the source. Click away from the story and investigate the site.
(2) Check the author. Are they real? Are they credible?
(3) Check the date. Some people repost old stories.
(4) Read beyond. Headlines can be outrageous and misleading.
(5) Supporting sources. Are there any facts that independently support the story?
(6) Is it a joke? Some sites intentionally write false, humorous stories under the satire genre.

What does it matter?
The internet or social media did not bring about fake news into being.

But it has made it easier to produce and distribute. Unethical journalistic practices existed in printed media for hundreds of years before the advent of the Internet.

Having said that attentive citizens must not get over excited by technology and in the process they “swallow” their brains. I have friends, very educated most of them who fall for these kind of pranks as well because they are lazy to use their critical thinking skills if they have any.

No wonder last week the telecoms regulator held a public seminar in Harare to discuss social media issues.

They have come to realise that since they cannot ban it, the best way is to engage end users.

Sometime last year I remember a cousin of mine Trevor in Bulawayo saying that Delta Beverages was hiring more than 5 000 people ahead of the holidays.

He went on to say that he had seen the advert on Facebook and received it via WhatsApp as well.

I asked him one question.

“Have you called Delta offices in Bulawayo to confirm that they are hiring?”

Obviously, he had not.

But that made him think and he opened the advert again and started using what is in between his ears.

It is so sad that hundreds of unemployed youths and adults made their way to Delta with their certificates and curriculum vitaes anticipating to be hired.

This is a question where someone knows that people are desperate for jobs in this country.

In fact this is not the only hiring incident that was announced via fake news.

It is my hope that you understand the gravity and seriousness of validating what your read especially on social media.

The last United States elections had a lot of social media activity which bordered on unverified news sources stories.

Enough said on that.

Do not allow your smartphone to be the “device” that will control your thoughts, emotions and actions remotely. Do not take the information handed to you as being the only alternative.

Form a habit of questioning rather than accepting what is dished out to you including this article!

 Robert Ndlovu can be reached on 077 600 2605 or [email protected]