I have been discussing with some friends over the concept of fake news and its spread via social media. Fake news is a people and sociological problem. It is not an internet or social media problem. Yes, it would be nice if Facebook and Google put in more effort in tackling the issue but it would almost be impossible to do because there are literally millions of contexts around the world that a large team of customer support people or artificial intelligence will never be able to understand.

Fake news is only the more modern term for an unverifiable rumour. How many times have we in regular everyday conversation with colleagues, friends and acquaintances heard something about ourselves that was completely untrue when fact checked?

The social, political and financial benefits from misinformation are the real problems. Not social media services. The current Momo Challenge hoax was pushed via journalists who are supposed to be able to do their jobs to ensure what they present to their listeners and readers are FACTS. These journalists, however, failed to do their job but instead took advantage of the fear parents have about their children being online — for PROFIT. Tech companies are barely involved in this transaction.

Fake news will never stop until we’re somehow able to shut down the benefits of saying untrue things about another person or a group of people for personal gain. I wonder how Journos expect anyone to do that when their colleagues are involved in peddling the same thing.