Don’t fall into the trap of fake news

PARK SU-RYEON
The author is head of the IT industry news department at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Can we really win this war? I am talking about the war on fake news. Certainly, fake news is the enemy of democracy, and not just because of the unprecedented determination of the president or prime minister.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) took the lead. Within a month of Chairman Lee Dong-kwan’s inauguration, the mighty media watchdog launched a “fake news eradication taskforce.” The chairman, who called internet media Newstapa’s maliciously-edited interview with Kim Man-bae shortly before the last presidential election a “national scandal,” set the direction of the battle by mentioning “one strike out.”

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the number of “cheering” reactions for the Hangzhou Asian Game on portal site Daum was manipulated. The task force of the KCC was elevated to an inter-ministerial body earlier this month.

The internet news outlet that slyly edited the interview, the media companies that published them without verifying, and the platforms which let 87 percent of the clicks on domestic services come from abroad, must not avoid responsibility.

All of them were incompetent. The entire media is devastated by the criticism that “the press is no different from people who spread rumors.” The complacency of the portal, which provides information to tens of millions of people, is striking enough to evoke memories of the infamous “Druking comment manipulation” in 2017.

But the blade of the sitting power aimed at the media is not reliable, either. While it is threatening to the media outlet or platform in question, I am not sure that the blade could protect democracy beyond 2023.

First, it is a mistake to adopt fake news as a battle term. There are so many things online that affect opinions besides news. The cost of maliciously manipulating information and spreading it on social media is too cheap in Korea.

The global media industry calls it “disinformation” rather than fake news and seeks policy and technological solutions together. There are also concerns that the term that combines “fake” with “news” rather encourages distrust in “real news” that stays faithful to verifying facts.

Nevertheless, as the government wields its own sword, only the debate about the definition of fake news is heated now at the legislative audit of the government. In reality, it is not easy for the government to identify fake news. According to the technology and media industry, generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT are risky for their high likelihood of being abused to create personalized propaganda messages with private information on social media. In other words, the method of inciting collective public opinion by manipulating comments or interviews is outdated, while the number of faceless AI attackers will increase exponentially.

In this complicated war over information, verification of authenticity cannot be monopolized by even the most competent government or even the most talented journalist. Citizens who have witnessed the failure of the media war in the previous administration feel uneasy.

Does the current administration really not know that you can’t catch a cow with a knife that was used to catch a chicken? Are they feigning innocence even though they know it? I hope neither is the case.