Ways to become responsible social media users in an era of fake news

Social media as we all know has became an outlet of ourselves. Interestingly, most people tend to treat social media as real circumstance in life; a medium of interaction where exchanges in information, knowledge and feeling is done almost instantaneously and automatically.

Much more, this has become the major medium of sharing even the minutest aspect of our lives, giving ourselves that ultimate freedom and power to express what we really want to say and shout…..the hell society cares!

However, everything has its limit by the way. Spidey’s Uncle Ben even put it this way, “great power comes great responsibility…”

In the following discussion, we will be signing out with our impulses and halt a bit of clicking and typing within our social media space and try to munch a bit of these few tips on becoming responsible social media users.

Now, would you agree guys if I insist that fake news and misinformation is the total reciprocate of being a responsible social media user? Admit, it, you agree.

I should say, that for the past year until this dawn of 2017, we are taught with nothing than fake news and misinformation. Yes, I know, you are now having that DDS sort of stuff in your head… Yes keep it going…..Mocha Blogs, Duterte Supporters Blog, Thinking Pinoy Blog…and a lot of this stuff. It is only this period that we are beginning to realize how much of these fake news sites and blog has affected our relationships with our friends and relatives through hate campaign against the so called “dilawans”, and how this same blogs and sites had even prostituted our fellow-Filipino’s sense of sanity, which I hypothesize is about 16M bots.

The said part is that fake news and misinformation has finally become a threat not only to social media (the sane part of it), but also the traditional media. The sadder part of it is that fake news and misinformation can spread in milliseconds like wildfire. And the saddest part is we tend to be accessories of fake news proliferation by actually sharing articles and news without even reading the article. You know what I mean…. If the headline or title do sound like ka-DDS sort thing, we will automatically share the article without even thinking twice or even half of it.. I know a lot of people who share social media feeds based on impulse and thoughtless mouse clicks. I know many of them, which I hypothesize is about 16M bots. I don’t think I could accept the fact that the factuality of a news will someday be weighed according the number of shares and likes in Facebook and other social media platforms.

Well, the proliferation of fake news and misinformation do not only come from the obliviousness of careless un-thinking Pinoys (about 16M bots). Misinformation may also be “capital-driven”. This means deliberate sensationalization of some media outlets, or “bending reality” for the purpose of “giving in” to what their followers want. Well, Google Trends has a lot to say about this.

Question, are we really in a situation of falling into the pit of misinformation and fake news as we go along with our social media lives? Well, nobody knows, even the spin doctors would not tell….

But we can do something. We can be responsible social media user! Being such would allow us to get the most accurate information that we want and could likewise share accurate information with our peers and family members.

The following notes will discuss ways to become a responsible social media user.

Decide and design your news feed.

Actually, we are the architects of our own newsfeed. Newsfeed is that part of our social media platform i.e. Facebook, here comments and various activities of our “Friends” are flagged or announced. We are the gatekeeper, the ultimate curator of our social media space. Anytime, we can always filter from whose “Friend” are we going to show in our newsfeed. Its like choosing which furniture are still of use, and which are garbage, well I know some them….. Yes the bots!

You might want to review the people and the Facebook pages that you follow. The general rule is, the more people and the more Pages you follow, the more newsfeed will automatically creep you out.! Siply put, maintain which friends and pages that are is the same with your interest or something that is personal to you. After all, Facebook never gives millions of dollars for FB accounts that have many “Friends”.

You might also want to remove tabloids and blogs that knowingly share false information just to generate high click rates for their advertisers. You know who they are when you see them, so take the extra five seconds to visit their profile and unfollow. In a race for clicks many decent media groups have spiraled out of control, morphing into a meaningless feed of conspiracies, lies and controversial accusations. Cut the cord by un-following content publishers that serve a shameless advertising agenda. Then replace them with trusted, reliable sources. I really love reading Mocha Uson Blogs and The Thinking Pinoy.

Background Checking

Most often, we have this tendency of reciprocating the “sharing” favor to our social media friends who have likewise shared our posts beforehand. Let’s put it this way. For example, you made a post about “single mothers” and FB friend A shared your post to his/her FB friends B, C, D….etc. As human nature of “reciprocation”, you will then be sharing whatever FB friend A will be posting, as a gratitude for sharing your posts. This may be a good practice among circle of friends who share similar interests and values. However, there lies danger of manipulation and deceit in here. Unaware of the source of a particular FB post, and eventually sharing this post to our friends may do harm than good. What if the “reciprocated” shared post is actually a false news or article which is harmful to others?

Remember, “what we share on social media is just as important as what we absorb on social media.” Sharing news is worthwhile, as long as it is founed on truth and empirical basis. Social media feeds trample on the other hand, because of proliferation of wrng information and misleading news items. Misinformation could actually discredit a personality or institution because of exponential sharing of fake social media feeds/news. So the rule of thumb on sharing, background check if necessary before sharing any information in social media. However, of qualifying your sources seems like too much trouble on your part, then consider not sharing articles and published information which you are not sure of. Be contended on the picture of your favorite shoes instead.

Be wary of false “social media prophets”. Eliminate them from your space

Admit it. Not all of your social media friends are actually your real-life friends. Meaning, you don’t really personally know your 1000+ FB friends do you? Be keen on your posers. If at the onset, you discover an FB friend posting a questionable and unreliable newsfeed, you have two options. Call his attention in your FB space and clarify his post once and for all. Well, that would be a bit harsh, but its worth the try. The seoncd option is of course, unfriend him/her! You would not want false news flash in your news feed, with you’re your colleagues and love ones reading your banner of false news and misinformative news items.

You might also want to categorize your FB friends into three. The first category should be your FB friends who are your real life fiends or realtives and love nes. The second category would be the Friends of your FB friends. And the third category are your friends in FB whom you haven’t personally met yet. You may never know, but having these categories comes in handy when it comes to choosing who on F you are going to trust, and who are not worthy of it.

Read what you share, and share only what you read

Oftentimes, we get too excited with what we browse-read and eventually end up sharing this particular material. However, it would be frustrating that in the second look, wht we have shared really was not actually thought about it in the first place. If the items that we shared have harmed a person or an institution, then all that we could do say sorry to them or pretend that we could no longer remember that particular harmful post that we have shared.

Yourself is not only your audience

Social media is called as such because of nothing. Socially media posts and threads are there to live forever, unless you deliberately delete them. Likewise, we have a vast number of audience that will read and share our posts. So the clincher is, social media is still a universe of various living audiences who could read, react and re-share your posts. It is an ecosystem of living humans who can remember you or your particular post, those who could refer to your Fb profile and those who could screen grab your post and use it for any good or evil purpose.

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As a gist, the golden verse for this article would be, “think before you click”. Remember the rule of nature, for every action, there is always an equal but opposite reaction (or counter-action for this context.) What we do in social media, may apparently hit us back in the future, God knows when.

STATEMENT FROM THE REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARIES OF THE PHILIPPINES ON the recent spate of killings in line with the government’s war on drugs

Sharing with you the statement of The Redemptorist Missionaries of the Philippines against the recent killings in the Philippines in relation to the government's anti-drug campaign. (I do not own this blog. Credits to The Redemptorist Missionaries) 

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!

(Lamentations, 5: 1) 

Stop Killing the Poor! 

We, the Redemptorists of the Philippines composed of the Vice-Province Manila and Province of Cebu, express our outrage for the recent spate of killings in line with the government’s war on drugs. As missionaries dedicated to serving the poor and the most abandoned, we condemn the war on drugs as a war on the poor. 

Most of the victims of extra-judicial killings are poor people. The police have become more relentless as the President himself had on many occasions incited the police to carry out a murderous war on the poor and admitted that the target of his war on drugs is the poor. 

On the other hand, rich drug lords and politicians coddlers of drug suppliers are given the full extent of the due process of law. 6.4 billion pesos worth of shabu freely entered the country due to the connections of the rich drug lords to politicians and Custom officials. In all of these, there was no howl from the President and other high ranking government officials. 

As Christians, we are appalled by the utter loss of respect for the dignity of life and human rights of the police operations. We are utterly distressed that in a Christian country like ours, the killings is tolerated, even supported. We dread the reality that a split-level kind of faith exists among our people. Such faith sees no connection between the gospel values and the wellspring of Christian faith and the suffering and killings of the people. As Filipinos we are gravely concerned with the kind of society we have become. What kind of people have we become? After more than a year of the war on drugs, our country has turned into a big killing field. Death is the order of the day. A culture of killing with impunity is the new normality. 

On the other hand, a culture of silence and a climate of fear prevail. In the midst of the daily killings, many people go on with their lives, show no empathy to the victims and accept the government war on drugs as necessary evil. Condemning the war on drugs does not undermine our stance against drug. Even before the Duterte government, we have denounced the menace of drug addictions in our proclamations and programs. We did not just denounce, however; we also organized programs and services to victims of drug addiction like counselling, livelihood projects and community support mechanisms. We call on the government to respect the law and uphold life. We call on the government to stop the killings. The “war on drugs” which in reality is a war on the poor has to end. Now! We call on the church to defend the sanctity of life during these dangerous times. We call on all people of goodwill to assist the poor victims of the drug war and participate in building programs to counteract the evil effects of drug addiction. 

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us that the spate of killings in our country may come to an end! 

Signed: Fr. Ariel Lubi, CSsR 

(Vice-Provincial Superior Provincial Superior,Redemptorist Vice-Province of Manila) 

Fr. Nico Perez, CSsR 

(Provincial Superior, Redemptorist Province of Cebu)

Mga Nakakatakot na Kakayahan ng Sarahah App sa Google Play?

Handa na ba nating isuko ang ating privacy para sa app na ito? 

Anong gagawin mo kung ang pinaka-iingatan mong mga contact, email man yan o phone number ay mahihigop at mako-kopya na lang bigla ng isang application nang hindi mo namamalayan. Ang mas masaklap pa, paano kung ang mga nahigop na impormasyong ito ay i-share sa internet? 

Narinig nyo na ba ang Sarahah app? Ang sarahah ay salitang Arabic na ang ibig sabihin ay "honesty". Sa Android, ito ay isang bagong application sa google market na may kakayahang makatanggap ng "honest feedback" mula sa mga kaibigan at mga kakilala sa social media. May kakayahang itong mai-link sa Snapchat account ng isang tao.

Kaya din ng Sarahah na makapagpadala ng anonymous messages sa iba pang tao.  Sa configuration din ng app, pupuwede ang user ng Sarahah na mag-screenshot ng mga comments mo sa FB at iba pang social media accounts na puwede namang mai-share sa ibang tao, nang walang pahintulot o paalam sa account owner ng isang social media site, halimbawa ay Facebook.

Sa unang gamit, siyempre, exciting ang Sarahah lalo na kung gusto nating malaman kung ano ang mga messages at posts ng isang tao sa social media gaya ng Snapchat. Sino ba namang hindi matutuwa kapag puwede mong paglaruan at ikalat sa buong social media ang isang nakakatuwang post?

Minsan, at ito ang mas nakakalungkot, puwede ring maabuso ang naturang app para gamitin sa hindi tamang paraan. Puwede itong gamitin sa pang-aabuso sa kapwa, gaya ng pangbu-bully o pang-asar sa mga taong may nai-post na kakatuwa o detrimental o nakakasira sa kanyang pagkatao! At ang biktima ay walang kaalam-alam dito. Halimbawa, anonymously ay puwedeng ikalat ng Sarahah ang isang post ko tungkol sa pangongopya ko sa exam. Na originally, ang layunin ng post ko halimbawa sa pangongopya ay magpatawa lang. Pero pwedeng lagyan ng malisyosong Sarahah user ng maling konteksto sa meesage kong iyon. Puwedeng sabihin na gawain ko talaga ito at pwuedeng sabihin ng uploader na matagal ko na itong ginagawa kaya nakakapasa ako sa college. At dito na nagkakaroon ng problema. Kapag kumalat na sa social media ang maling paratang sa iyo, nang hindi mo namamalayan. Sa kaso ko halimbawa, puwedeng isang araw ay ipatawag na lang ako ng Dean namin at suspindihin ako ng isang linggo sa klase!

Paano ba gumagana ang Sarahah?

Kung tutuusin, mayroon namang privacy settings ang application na ito. Pupuwede namang hindi na mapakita ang personal na account ng isang user, at puwede rin namang hindi na siya makatanggap ng mga messages sa mga anonymous users.

May kakayahang makatanggap ng "honest feedback" mula sa mga kaibigan at mga kakilala a social media. Yun nga lang, kapag nag-download ka na ng app, kukunin ng Sarahah ang iyong full contact list na puwedeng ibenta naman ng mga developer ng app na ito Basahin ang privacy policy ng app kung anu-anong imporasyon ang puwedeng makuha sa user.

Ang Dark Side ng Sarahah
 

Once na ma-download na ang Sarahah, automatic nitong hihigupin ang lahat ng uploads sa cellphone mo, kasama dito ang lahat ng contact numbers sa phone mo, pati ang email address ng mga contacts mo.  Sa simula, magpapa-alam naman ang app sa iyo kung papayag kang ma-access niya ng iyong phone book, pero hindi niya sinasabi kun ganu-ano pa ang maaari niyang makuha at magamit. Kaya kung mayroon kang scandal video sa phone mo, o kung may mga kahindik-hindik kang messages sa sent items mo, sigurado, nasa bingit ka ng kahihiyan!

Sinubukan ni Zachary Julian ang nasabing application. Si Zachary ay isang senior security analyst ng Bishop Fox, isang IT security consulting firm na nag-aaral sa assessment at penetration testing ng ilang mga application sa internet. Nadiskubra at napatunayan ni Zachary Julian na nag-a-upload nga ang Sarahah ng mga impormasyon ng user once na na-download at nag-run ang nasabing application. 

“As soon as you log into the application, it transmits all of your email and phone contacts stored on the Android operating system,” -Julian.

Sabihin na nating kaya namang pagkatiwalaan ang app na Sarahah at maniwala sa sinasabi nilang "privacy" ng mga kinukuha nilang impormasyon mula sa user. Ang kaso, hindi natin mapagkakatiwalaan ang ilang internet servers na pupuwedeng pagdalahan ng mga impormasyong nakukuha ng Sarahah sa atin.

Huwag titigan ang app, subukang tingnan din ang nagagawa nito sa server 

Tama din naman na sabihin na ang kaya lang nating makita, being users ng application ay ang behaviour ng app sa cellphoes natin. Pero madalas, lalo na yung mga hindi techie, hindi natin nakikita ang mga ginagawa ng app kapag nasa server na. (Ang server ay computer program na nagbibigay ng impormasyon o commands sa iba pang computer o netework ng mga computers)

Tandaan, na kahit gaano pa kagaling ang privacy settings ng isang application, kung hindi naman natin ito na-configure ng maayos, pupuwede pa ring magkaroon ng server-breach at makapasok ang ilang taong may maiitim na puso para paglaruan ang anumang datos na makukuha sa atin. Bibihira ang mga apps na magsasabi kung ligtas nga ang isang application o hindi. Minsan pa nga, karamihan sa mga Android users ay walang app integrity checker! 

Sa kasalukuyan, mayroon nang 5million hanggang 10 million na taong nag-install ng app na ito sa Android pa lang. So kung ang mga nagdownload na ito ay tamaan ng sumpong at subukang kumuha ng mga private information ng kanya-kanya nilang contacts, then mayroon tayong mga daang-daang milyong contact numbers and emails na nakuha at openly ay puwedeng magamit sa masama.  Ang tanong, isa ka kaya sa mga nag-download ng app? O isa kaya sa mga nasa phonebook ng isang kaibigan o kakilala n nag-download na ng app. Ang masasabi ko na lang siguro dito, well, goodluck sa ating lahat!

END

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