Beyond the truth

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If you have been reading, watching or listening to the news over the past couple of years, you will be familiar with the term ‘fake news’. You have, perhaps, also heard about the possibly terrifying consequences of the uncontrolled spread of fake news: the subversion of democracy in countries like Nigeria and Kenya, say, and even the destruction of life in countries such as Myanmar and India.

But why does the ordinary citizen share fake news? If we agree that most people do not really intend to cause widespread harm and neither are they ignorant nor unwise, why would they still share fake news on social media and chat apps?

As our research project in India, Nigeria and Kenya – conducted with Third Eye, Flamingo and Synthesis – found, more often than not, the act of sharing fake news on WhatsApp and/or Facebook is not about the transmission of information. It is about the projection of people’s selves and beliefs, ...