EDITORIAL - Fake news strikes again

The Depart of Education (DepED) issued a blanket suspension of classes nationwide yesterday and today to allow for activities to observe World Teachers Day.

Actually, no. This was fake news on an infographic that has spread online. Classes proceed as normal yesterday, except for some areas that did suspend classes yesterday for this occasion, and will proceed today, barring something unpredictable.

In fact, the infographic on the blanket suspension order was so convincing that three local government units --Infanta, Pangasian; Godod Zamboanga del Norte; and Laoang, Northern Samar--backed it up and declared local class suspensions of their own. Although, to their credit, they were quick to take back that suspension after realizing it was fake.

We are sure that many students were left disappointed and many government officials red-faced.

Those who think the blanket suspension order was true can’t be blamed; the infographic looks official enough. There’s the logo of the national government, the DepEd logo, an “executive order” from the Presidential Communications Office, and an explanation for the suspension of classes.

Several versions of the infographic also came out, some naming just October 5 as the rest day, others naming October 2 and 5 as rest days, and another naming October 5 and 6 as rest days, although closer inspection also shows that this infographic got the dates wrong, placing October 5 as a Thursday and October 6 as a Friday.

Once again, this shows how easily fake news can be manufactured and spread. Also once again, this shows how people will immediately believe it --not to mention spread it-- without checking first if it is true.

How do we know when an infographic is fake? Obvious mistakes like the non-matching dates can be a clue. But what about those so elaborately worded and crafted?

Again, it would help checking with multiple sources before taking a move, make that multiple reliable sources. In this case, checking with DepEd would have been the more prudent move.

We don’t know who made the infographic or what he or she had in mind to achieve, but if it was to cause some confusion it worked to some extent.

Let’s not forget that there are more ambitious disinformants out there with more damaging plans in mind.