Nowadays
there are several controversies related to the former senior secretary for
civil affairs, Cho Kuk.
The most renowned and controversial issue is the
preferential treatment for the admission of his daughter to Korea University.
Also, there is an allegation that his daughter received a scholarship although
her grades did not meet the criteria. Various evidence raised doubts and even a
hearing was arranged to find out the truth.
Along
with this issue, there are lots of fake news that have gone viral on the
Internet. For example, some argue that Cho Kuk's daughter drives a foreign car
worth about 300 million won and so on. However, most of these rumors were found
to be false.
Like
this case, when searching the Internet for a certain news, there are many
different stories, most of which have been identified as fake news.
These
days, it became much easier for the public to access to a variety of fake news
articles. Due to the wide spread of SNS and the Internet, people can research
things easily. In extreme cases, people often make investments or make
financial decisions based on false information spread through SNS such as
KakaoTalk or Naver Band.
Fake
news actually causes economic damage.
According
to an analysis done by Hyundai Research Institute, fake news cost an estimated
30.9 trillion won. This amount includes economic damage the company's
operations, but when considering the amount of individual damage, it is still
about 540 billion won.
Korea
is ranked 5th globally when considering the exposure to fake news,
according to a research done by Statista. Being ranked 5th place can
be considered quite serious amount of exposure to fake news because politics
and economy are unstable from the 1st to the 3rd place.
As
the circumstances and economical damage worse due to fake news, governmental
authorities are also paying attention to fake news issues.
“If
we don`t stop walking toward the truth, freedom of speech will grow and our
community will develop as much,” President Moon Jae-in said, referring to the
seriousness of fake news.
Some
governmental officials, however, say that the regulation which prevent people
from spreading fake news will not be easy.
The
broadcasting and communication review committee can conduct an investigation
only when several reports are made on particular issues. There is no
organization or place where they conduct research on fake news.
“After
all, there's not much that can be done directly with fake news,” the officer
from the broadcasting and communication review committee said. “In case of
celebrity status, we can deal with it under the current law, but it's not easy
to come up with measures to punish fake news categories.”
Unfortunately,
from now on, there are no laws or regulations that are enforceable in practice.
Therefore, it is up to us to stop the spread of fake news.
Here
are some tips when reading news articles. Everyone should be wary of the SNS
advantages, being available anytime, anywhere. Since anyone can use it freely
without any restriction of time and space, it is better to first question the
information on SNS.
The
source should be explicit like newspapers or TV news and the source should be
the media where reliable information is published. Also, even when viewing the
media be careful of the bias as well as fake information. To illustrate, it may
not be compatible with the present issue, so the public must be aware of the
date when the article was written or was spread.
Getting
access to genuine information without being misled by fake news is a way to
guarantee the people's right to know. Voluntarily looking at the world with the
insight to discern fake news is virtue of genuine democratic citizens.
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