There is absolutely no doing that the spreading of fake news is one of the most significant global issues at this stage in the 21st century. From health to politics to general culture and beyond, the distortion of facts and willful sharing of misinformation and disinformation has the potential to incite social unrest across Australia and the wider world.
With the vast reach that the internet has, the rapid dissemination of damaging content on various social media platforms has seen ‘fake news’ proliferation at a truly alarming speed, and Australia is no exception to this.
Misinformation across Australia and other APAC countries can pose a unique challenge for the respective governments and societies. There is a great degree of cultural diversity across the various regions, coupled with some linguistic variations, that can make it even easier for fake news in Australia to take root and work to exploit and deepen cultural and political divisions. In recent times, countries like the Philippines and Indonesia have experienced disinformation campaigns during important elections, and in Australia in particular, fake news surrounding climate change, health and immigration has been at the forefront.
One of the major challenges regionally is the evolving and growing use of coordinated disinformation campaigns by what are described as ‘foreign actors’. These are campaigns that work to target political elections, businesses interest and governmental policies. In Australia specifically, such campaigns have focused on divisive subjects like public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration and indigenous rights. As you can imagine, the impact on society that this kind of malicious content sharing can have is very significant and can undermine public trust in institutions as well as destabilize community relations.
Briefly, in the broader APAC regions like Malaysia and Singapore, there have also been ripple effects from fake news around public health and electoral outcomes. There is a great challenge in balancing the need for an effective countermeasure program with the understanding of not wanting to infringe on the free expression of citizens.
At present, there are no specific laws that criminalize the spreading of fake news in Australia, but there are a set of legal frameworks that are working to address damaging misinformation through other means. For example, there are defamation laws which enable organizations and individuals alike to take action against any fake news in Australia that poses damage to reputation. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is at the forefront of regulating suspected malicious content, particularly in the telecommunications and media fields.
In comparison, a number of other APAC countries have been much bolder and taken some much stronger legal stances. For instance, in Singapore, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act was introduced in 2019, which is a somewhat controversial law that enables the government to enforce corrections to any content that is deemed to be false.
Fake news in Australia can result in devastating consequences across a number of different sectors, namely businesses, governments, and non-profits. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Misinformation down across a business landscape can lead to things like reputational damage, the erosion of consumer trusts and, in an ultimate sense, financial losses. For instance, false information about company policies, products or practices can cause a significant degree of public backlash that can affect stock prices and sales.
Any government across the world, including Australia, can be particularly vulnerable to campaigns of misinformation that work to undermine trust and confidence in leadership and policies. This was especially highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia where online fake news regarding lockdown measures and vaccines lead to a lot of compliance problems and public confusion.
In the world of non-profits, these organizations rely heavily on public trust and subsequent donations. Obviously, any amount of fake news can be very damaging towards these efforts. Misleading falsehoods about charitable work and fundraising foals has the potential to sow doubt in minds of volunteers, donors, and wider communities being served.
Thankfully, Australia has been positive and proactive in its attempts to address the issue of widespread fake news, using a variety of measures and methods.
Policies have been enacted which aim to reduce the spread of misinformation nationwide. The aforementioned ACMA has been granted increased powers to hold selected social media platforms to account for the content that they allow to be shared. An Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce has also been established in order to safeguard elections from interference.
The Australian government is working together with private organizations to approach tech giants like X and Facebook and encourage them to remove harmful false content. This has also been boosted by collaborations between new agencies and fact checking bodies that can work quickly to dispel falsehoods before they take root.
To try to combat the early roots of the fake news issue, Australia has committed to investing in widespread media literacy programs, particularly for young people. These programs aim to educate digital users on how to distinguish between factual reporting and fake malicious content.
It just so happens that one of the most effective tools in this fight against Australian fake news is Osavul, a state-of-the-art media monitoring platform that is designed with the specific intention of tracking misinformation and disinformation narratives online.
Osavul employs advanced data analytics and algorithms to allow businesses, governments and non-profits alike monitor the emergence and spread of harmful fake news across news outlets, social media and any other digital platforms. The tool suite can help to identify burgeoning campaigns, trace their origins and use real time alerts to quickly manage the problem.
Osavul offers a wide spectrum of benefits for users. For governments, it can be a valuable tool for policy communication and crisis management. For businesses, it can track false information that might be harmful to brand reputation or product sales, and for non-profits, it can be used to monitor the accuracy of the information that is being shared relating to an organization's activities and efforts.
Ultimately, it is clear to see that the issue of fake news in Australia and the wider APAC region is something that is going to take a lot of effort and coordinated actions to solve. With the right legislative frameworks, tech company partnerships and media literacy campaigns in place, a lot of progress can be made to bring society above the malicious influence of such content.
With the help of media monitoring platforms like Osavul, the digital landscape can be tackled in an effective and successful way to make it a more reliable, accurate space for important information.
