Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 24-01-2017
Media Monitoring Africa says the creation of fake social media accounts on Twitter and other platforms is to undermine the credibility of reputable media houses and mislead the public.
Fake Twitter accounts have emerged of 702, the Sunday Times and the Huffington Post.
The false accounts have widely spread news and stories about Editor-at-large of Huffington Post SA Ferial Haffajee, finance minister Pravin Gordhan and others.
Media Monitoring’s William Bird says the creation of fake news social media accounts is not only mischievous but a misinformation campaign.
“The media has a critical role to play. Now when you start going and pretending to be them and putting out things that are simply blatantly not true, that undermines not only those media’s credibility but it undermines your democratic state because how on earth are meant to know who they should and shouldn’t trust.”
Bird says while it is difficult to trace the creators of the fake news social media accounts, he has urged affected media houses to utilize the police and the full might of the law to find the perpetrators and charge them criminally.
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