Hunting fake news redux

“We have to shame these f****** ignorant bastards.” – Herbie Gomez, editor-in-chief, Gold Star Daily, on how to deal with purveyors of fake news

THERE has a resurgence, of sorts, of fake news posts lately. I say “of sorts” because I have already an app that filters this digital garbage off my browser. If you’re interested, you can download this app at https://fakeblok.com/.

There are zero fake news website and posts on my social media account because of this app, except for an occasional post of friends who want their online friends to know that these are propaganda websites.

Lately, however, an undersecretary of the Department of Energy has been sharing fake news and has even admonished his online friends to be like UK’s Queen Elizabeth who supposedly praised Digong Dada based on a “news” article (false) published on altervista. The account has since been taken down by Google.

What concerns me is that high ranking government executives have been sharing this propaganda website on social media lately. There’s Mayor Richard Gomez who shared the same fake news the DOE undersecretary shared.

As a public service, I screen captured the website and pointed to the features lacking for a legitimate news website. Yesterday, I checked that particular post again and saw that it has been shared 136 times. Now, that has encouraged me since it tells me that many people have grown tired of the lies and propaganda that are passed off as news on social media platforms.

Hence, I will share again the tips I’ve learned on how to hunt these propaganda websites.

So how can we scrutinize a news website or a post on social media platforms in particular and the Internet in general? Here are some tips:

1. Check if the uniform resource locator (URL). URLs are the web addresses of the articles on the Internet. Many propagandists have intentionally made web addresses to look these are from legitimate news media organizations. Examples of these include ABCnews.com.co, Bloomberg.ma, cnn-trending.com, NBCNews.com.co, washingtonpost.com.co, etc.

Notice that most of the fake news websites have a suffix “.co.”

2. Read beyond the headline of a news post. I, as I assume you do too, see these almost all the time on Facebook. People sharing “news articles” based on the headline but have not really read the entire article. Worse, they will caption the link with an inappropriate comment because as I said they haven’t really read the article.
3. While you’re reading a news article, check for exaggerations. Fake news is meant to rile up or elicit strong emotions to drive web traffic and further inflamed on social media platforms. Naturally, the fake news would have exaggerations.
4. Check if the data presented in the “news article” is corroborated or supported by experts in the particular field or other news media websites. Okay, that sounds more daunting of a task as I would have preferred. Maybe this acronym can help GIN (Google It, Numbnuts).
5. This next tip will sound idiotic but believe me many have done this–sharing a news article without checking the date of publication. Digong Dada’s drummer boy Peter Lavina did it by posting a photo of a rape victim meant to rile up support for the war on drugs. However, the photo was from another continent, Brazil and from an entirely different timeline. So before you share, check out the date and location, huh?
6. Always cross-check the site with other reliable sources on the web. Real news articles may differ in angling, perspective, or even syntax but these will always have the same basic accounting of the story. Like if there are two reporters of different news organizations covering a story, they might approach the story differently but they will always be, essentially, the same story.

You may find it hard to believe but there has been a deluge of fake photos on the Internet too.

You need to look at the following to spot a fake photo:

1. Shadows. I summarize photography as the art of taming shadows and light. Look for inconsistencies in the subjects’ shadow in the photo. For example, if the shadow of a man in the photo is leaning at a 45-degree angle, everything else in the frame should have the same 45-degree angle-leaning shadows.
2. Light source. Inversely from shadows, the light source of the whole frame should be global. The bounce of the light source on the subjects in the frame should be consistent with the shadows these set. This means the light source should be at the opposite end of the subject’s shadow.
3. Discoloration. This usually happens when a subject introduced to a photo is a clone of a subject from a different photo. If you can see discoloration on the edges of a subject in a photo (read: inconsistent color from the main frame), chances are the photo has been manipulated with a photo editing software.
4. Pixilation. This is akin to the presence of discoloration in a photo, except that instead of color inconsistency there’s inconsistency in pixels of the photo. This happens when the photo editor clones a subject from a different photo and placing it on a new photo without considering the image size (read: dots per inch or pixels per inch) of the photo the photo editor cloned it from.

The Lorax

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”  -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I THINK the worst by-product of impunity is apathy. Unfortunately, I see it happening to our country down to the most basic unit of government.

Too many politicians, persons-in-authority, and government workers get away with the most atrocious attacks on basic human rights that people have become bitter, jaded and worse, apathetic.

I have had way too many depressing conversations with people who have espoused the why-should-I-care attitude to life. There are also people who think that as long as things do not affect them directly, it’s none of their business.

For instance, a friend asked: “If politicians get away with contract killings of rival politicians or steal from the public coffers, why should I be punished for the petty infractions I commit?” By the way, I have translated and rephrased my friend as the original quote was in the dialect and peppered with expletives.

I hear neighbors bark back at their transistor radios and TVs every time a news of a picket or rally is aired. At first, this reaction boggled my mind because I have lived the better part of my life in an urban poor community. I thought my neighbors, of all people, would understand the expressed rage of the people in the picket lines or rallies. These guys get the flack because they are fighting for higher wages, lower cost of living, and government transparency and accountability? I couldn’t wrap my head around that.

Yet, news of thieving, philandering, and genocidal politicians being outed for their crimes would not elicit the same response.

They would simply respond by saying that nothing will come out of the investigations. I certainly cannot blame them for this kind of response. When you’ve seen a number of crooked politicians waltz their way in and out of courthouses, you’d pretty much be jaded yourself.

As in the street slang: “Nothing can happen this.” I have never really grown accustomed to this type of response.

This phenomenon is also prevalent in the blogosphere, especially on social media platforms. The anonymity on the Internet has emboldened netizens with a double dose of the impunity-apathy phenomenon. And why not? If crooks who have been named in investigations can get away easily, how easy can you get away with trolling and inciting physical harm to other netizens?

Like my neighbors, there are netizens who feel their silence on the growing enmity in the blogosphere will not affect them as long as they stick to be in the middle.

However, democracy and governance, whether these be in the real or virtual society, is not a spectator sport. Everything is connected and everybody should participate.

Being a citizen does not end with voting. The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections will push through this May. I enjoin you, my dear readers, not just turn up at the polling precincts blind.

Look, an apathetic response to cases of impunity is lazy. Impunity will never stop for as long as you stay jaded. Get involved in your community so you can have a truly independent and intelligent choice in leaders in the future.

I realize, of course, this is a big task to tackle. Why don’t we start small? Let’s start with our families, communities, and then eventually the society at large.

Mooched

"If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

WE are being mooched and done for. This I found out after buying supplies for the last stretch of February, over the weekend.

I remember a friend’s joke that goes: If you are poor, yet, somehow survived Duterte’s Oplan Tokhang, you’ll definitely be run over by his “Train” (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion).

Here in our talipapa, the price of fish per kilo is hovering at P150 while the price of rice per kilo ranges from P45 to P50. Meanwhile, pork can be had for P200 per kilo. But, the government still insist the Train Law isn’t affecting the economy.

About a fortnight ago, the Philippine Stocks Exchange suffered its biggest loses in over a year. On Monday, last week, PSE index dropped by 194 points lower than that of Feb. 2. It simply means that foreign funds (read: investments) left the country’s market to the tune of P5.058 billion. But, the government still insist the extended martial law isn’t affecting the investment climate.

According to Department of Energy’s Mindanao Field Office ― in their monitoring as of Jan. 16 ― pump prices for diesel here in Cagayan de Oro has shot up from P39.05 to P41.45. But, the government will insist this change will not affect the prices of basic commodities, will it?

I know I sort of promised in my last column to contain my rantings to domestic complaints. However, happenings in the national level always trickle down and affect us. To point it out: prices of basic commodities in Mindanao will increase the most compared to other island groupings simply because it is located farthest from central government.

No amount of spinning can negate the fact that our wallets are being fleeced right in front of our very noses. Meanwhile, the new set of oligarchs prance about like there is no impending financial meltdown, the likes of which, methinks, is only comparable to what happened in Venezuela lately. Pfft.

Domestic complaints

I HAVE been ranting about national issues for the better part of last year and the month of January. I did so not because the local government is not wanting in some areas of governance. It was because I wanted to give the newly appointed department heads to settle in their respective posts.

I gave Digong Dada a year to settle in before ranting about his policies if you insist on calling it that. So, a year is a fair enough time to give retired Army colonel Mario Verner Monsanto, overseer of the Roads and Traffic Management, to see if he could succeed where erstwhile traffic czar Edgardo Uy couldn’t quite resolve.

I’d like to see newly minted City Administrator Teodoro Sabuga-a succeed where err… who did he replace again? The last person I knew who was the city administrator was Raagas with all the security filters in his office. It was literally easier to interview the city mayor than the city administration then.

Now that I have given them a fair enough time, here are some of my domestic complaints.

Sidewalks and narrow barangay roads are still being used as an extra parking space. Worse, I saw an ambulant automotive body repair and mechanical shop. It’s not like they were ever driven or towed away to start with. I think it’s only logical not to buy another vehicle if your driveway can only accommodate one.

Our neighbor stopped for a while after giving them the stink-eye every morning. But they are back. Don’t you just love the smell of acetylene and welding rods burning on a Sunday morning? Or the fumes of their dump truck revving beside your windows, at dawn, I might add?

I remember a traffic specialist from Germany once presented his findings on Cagayan de Oro City. He said the city is not pedestrian-friendly. Every time I come home from work, I hitch with my boss up to Gaisano Mall. I then walk from there to the main church of the UCCP. It irritates me that traffic enforcers seem to be oblivious that motorcycles, sometimes taxis, and jeepneys even, encroach the sidewalk. These wayward motorists even have the gall to blast their horns as if it is their space on the road.

Where are the traffic enforcers during all of these, you ask? Well, they’re in a corner, chilling with the cops. You know, shooting the breeze, chewing the fat.

Talking of cops, I have yet to see those new big bikes patrol the inner city. Well, to be fair, I did see one last week but it was not patrolling. It just whizzed through our barangay using the siren instead of the horn to warn pedestrians to ease a way for him.

By the way, the minors who drink by the roadside until the wee hours of the morning are still at it. Until the new head of the city’s social and welfare development office “rescue” them or reprimand their parents, what they post on social media will remain exactly as it is — mere propaganda.

Where is the barangay government in all of these? Well, if you follow My Wit’s End regularly, I have been asking that too for the past five years.

That’s why I was sort of elated when my eldest told me the Barangay and SK elections will push through. Well, except in Marawi City. Sorry, guys. This administration is so hell-bent on bending your will to submission.

Going back to the Barangay and SK elections, I am happy that we could have a makeover. I think a lot of my neighbors have realized how they were in picking this guy to lead the barangay. Hell, I was wrong. I voted for him then. I thought he was different from all the other traditional politicians.

Now, I think I would rather vote a duck into the Barangay Hall than him. So, fare thee well, Chairman Dante.