Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government on Friday came out strongly to speak against the rising wave of fake news in the country, a situation that prompted it to direct communication officers to ensure timely dispensing of information and responding to all forms of misinterpretation and distortion which continue to create unnecessary tension and panic to the public.
Speaking in Dodoma region, Chief Government Spokesperson, Mr Gerson Msigwa said fabrication and distortion has taken a new dimension and that there is need of issuing clarifications accordingly.
According to Mr Msigwa, government communication officers have a mandate to ensure that any distortion of information is timely cleared and that the public is fed with correct information.
Giving a clear picture of the magnitude of the problem in the country, Mr Msigwa said a trend is rising in Tanzania whereby individuals use social media to distort information issued by the government, citing news circulating on Covid-19 and the vaccine, feeding the public with misleading information.
Trying to put the situation under control Mr Msigwa said the directorate of information services is now finalising guidelines on how to coordinate and control government social media platforms so that they serve the expected purpose.
According to him, the guidelines which will be in effect by the end of this month intend to revive and upgrade the contents so that it copes with the current demands and technological advancement.
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. Others define fake news as the deliberate creation and sharing of false and/or manipulated information that is intended to deceive and mislead audiences, either for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial gain.
Economists agree that fake news’ issue is currently a hot topic, it’s been a problem in the business world for a long time. A bad news story can cause plummeting stock prices, destroy the reputation of a business, or cause unreasonable customer expectations. The World Economic Forum ranks the spread of misinformation and fake news, as among the world’s top global risks.
Sport, football in particular, is an area that is currently hard hit by misinformation, seriously causing unnecessary conflicts among stakeholders.
Since fake news entails deliberate disinformation where false and misleading information is sowed to mislead, manipulate or harm for which there is invariably a large economic price tag attached, there is a pressing need to come up with workable plan to contain the problem before we witness devastating effects
