Fake news Negative Impact On Political Decision Making

FAKE NEWS HAS MADE IT INTO THE SWISS VOTING CAMPAIGN!

• Videos are circulating on social media spreading false information about the vote on the Covid-19 law.
• According to experts, such fake news has increased during the pandemic.
• They have also become more visible.
• This disinformation could endanger direct democracy.

Up until the breakdown of the Corona pandemic, disinformation hardly played a role in Switzerland. However, there are signs that fake news started spreading during the pandemic, or that they have become at least more visible. A recently published study shows that almost half of the Swiss population consider disinformation to be a major problem. Almost a quarter of those surveyed stated that they often come across fake news.

Daniel Vogler, a media scientist at the Research Center for Public and Society ( F ög), says “In times of crisis, there is great uncertainty in society, which increases the willingness to accept alternative perspectives on the world.” He notes that such fake news can negatively affect political decision-making. “That is a problem for a functioning democracy,” says Vogler.

It’s critical: people must verify where a piece of news comes from!  ” do not believe everything you read in the net”

If there are calls for a political framework that creates trustworthy media coverage. There is also a need for guard rails that create transparency rules for algorithms in social media.

RECENT EXAMPLE:

German influencer Miriam Hope in a viral video talks about the fact that if the Covid-19 law were to be adopted, there would be a “power shift” to the Federal Council and thus the population would be “expropriated”. She also claims at the end of her video that Janssen had provided the text for the video. Martin Janssen, who is fighting the Covid-19 law with the “Healthy and Free” association, says he is not aware of the video. “The text is not mine and I don’t know the woman either,” says Janssen.

Read the full 20 minutes article in German here. Vote manipulation here.