Fake News – What’s the harm?

Former news reporter and founder of Africa’s first fact-checking organisation Peter Cunliffe-Jones argues that since concern about ‘information disorder’ soared in 2016, we have laboured under flawed assumptions about the nature and effects of ‘fake news’ and misinformation. Based on a four-year review of 250 case studies, Cunliffe-Jones sets out four ideas for fact-checkers, policymakers and platforms to curb harmful consequences and protect wider freedom of speech. First, information disorder is about more than misinformation. Second, misinformation in offline settings can cause as big a problem as misinformation online. Third, misinformation that affects policymakers can be as bad as misinformation that affects the public. Fourth, he proposes a model for fact-checkers, researchers and platforms to distinguish false claims that do and do not have substantive potential to cause substantive consequences.

Peter Cunliffe-Jones has been a Visiting Researcher at University of Westminster since 2019. While working as a reporter and editor for the AFP News Agency from 1990 to 2016, he founded Africa Check, Africa’s first fact-checking organisation, in 2012. He served on the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) from 2015-2024 where he helped develop the IFCN Code of Principles, used by more than 170 organisations worldwide. He has advised platforms and fact-checkers and has published on regulation of misinformation and the teaching of media literacy.