Government & Communications

The “fake news” wars have reached a new peak. While the president continues to accuse journalists and his opponents of spreading “fake news,” evidence mounts of extensive right-wing disinformation efforts, many aimed at boosting President Doanld Trump and sowing discord among his opponents. The result: Those who cry “fake news” the loudest remain the ones most responsible for circulating it. President Trump and his supporters have dominated the conversation on “fake news” by repackaging a political tactic as old as American democracy itself.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders the night of Nov 7 shared a video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta that appeared to have been altered to make his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern. The edited video looks authentic: Acosta appeared to swiftly chop down on the arm of an aide as he held onto a microphone while questioning President Donald Trump. But in the original video, Acosta’s arm appears to move only as a response to a tussle for the microphone. His statement, “Pardon me, ma’am,” is not included in the video Sanders shared.

During a press conference following Nov 6's midterm election, President Donald Trump escalated his ongoing war of words with CNN’s Jim Acosta. When Acosta asked President Trump about inflating the supposed threat to America from the caravan, he responded, “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country and you run CNN.” Acosta refused to relinquish his microphone, physically tangling with an aide who sought to take it away from him. Shouting over President Trump’s attempts to move on to another reporter, Acosta managed to ask a question about the Russia investigation.

Why is there so often no overlap, no resemblance whatsoever between the news events reported in mainstream print and broadcast coverage, and even on liberal outlets like MSNBC, and the topics that get broadcast as news on the Fox network and its fellows on the right?

The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. By committing to the following principles, governments, companies and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.

Governments Will

Ensure everyone can connect to the internet so that anyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can participate actively online.

The power of communication and the exchange of ideas were starkly brought home recently as news of bombs being delivered to Americans’ homes and businesses, and the murder of worshipers in Pittsburgh dominated headlines everywhere. President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies appear to be actively engaged in a feedback loop with extremists who participate in the darkest online forums.

As President Donald Trump and his allies have waged a fear-based campaign to drive Republican voters to the polls for the midterm elections, far-right internet communities have been buoyed as their once-fringe views have been given oxygen by prominent Republicans. Since the 2016 election, these far-right communities have entered into a sort of imagined dialogue with the president. They create and disseminate slogans and graphics, and celebrate when they show up in Trump’s Twitter feed days or weeks later. They carefully dissect his statements, looking for hints of their influence.

On his way to campaign rallies in West Virginia and Indiana on Nov 2, President Donald Trump stopped to answer some questions from the media. Karen Travers of ABC News raised a question that’s gained heightened attention recently after a fervent President Trump supporter allegedly mailed bombs to Democratic officials and after a man echoing President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration allegedly killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. “Half of Americans say you’re encouraging politically motivated violence with the way you speak,” Travers said.

President Donald Trump says railing against his enemies in the media helped him win — and that his supporters like him more when he cranks up the "enemy of the people" rhetoric. President Trump said, "I think I'm doing a service [by attacking the press] when people write stories about me that are so wrong." He said, "I know what I do good and what I do bad. I really get it, OK?

President Donald Trump defended his proclivity to spread misleading statements and falsehoods, saying that he tells the truth when he can. “Well, I try. I do try...and I always want to tell the truth,” President Trump said. “When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful." President Trump also took issue with the media’s estimates of the sizes of caravans of Central American migrants slowly making their way toward the United States.