国际英语资讯:Germany moves to crack down on fake news_时事

国际英语资讯:Germany moves to crack down on fake news

BERLIN, April 1 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party are drafting a concrete plan to combat fake news in the country and the potential effect it could have for the upcoming general elections in September.

Simon Hegelich, professor of political science at the Technical University of Munich and who was asked by Merkel to brief the CDU executive committee on the fake news movement, told Xinhua in a recent interview that fake news became high priority for German politicians after the U.S. elections.

Hegelich believes if fake news is distributed in high frequency, say, by social bots, trolls or algorithms, it could change public perception of a topic for a short amount of time, and that high-frequency fake news before the election or at times of strategical importance could be dangerous.

"Overtime, fake news contributes to an atmosphere of uncertainty and angst, which could help populist parties," said Hegelich.

Subsequently, Merkel and her party plan to deal with social bots and internet trolls, which they deem as "the biggest threat to disseminating high frequency fake news".

To help combat open misinformation channels on social media sites, Merkel and her CDU party plan to give Facebook and other social platforms users more flexibility in registering complaints about fake news and any offensive content.

Any victims of fake news would also have the right to know who wrote the source material. To ensure the action plan is followed, any news portals who do not comply with the proposed terms will be fined -- the current suggested amount is 500,000 euros.