Today’s world is no longer the one in which we once grew up. If we turn on the news or read the newspaper, we are confronted with news that was previously unthinkable. Wars, environmental destruction, pandemics, earthquakes, volcanoes, catastrophes without end.
If you look behind the scenes, you will often be confronted with fake news and conspiracy theories. That’s why I usually prefer the daily newspaper or the TV news to the internet or YouTube, Instagram, and the like. There have always been times when certain people tried to fool the crowd. Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels was a devilish master at it. To this day, there are people all over the world who think that Adolf Hitler “wasn’t that bad” or that the Holocaust didn’t really happen. It is similar to the “stolen election” of 2020 in the United States. Joe Biden got seven million votes more than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton got nearly 2.9 million votes more than Trump in 2016.
For the Philippines, these conspiracy theories are even more dangerous if they are adapted to our country and concerns. Almost 79 percent of Filipinos get their news from Facebook. How can you protect people from being dumbed down? I am in favor of overseeing the internet and its most important pages. If there is nonsense somewhere that is also dangerous (e.g., vaccination is harmful, ivermectin helps against COVID), one should draw attention to it with censorship or at least a big red warning of the article in question. Nobody wants a generation of complete idiots to grow up here who then also do nonsense and endanger their lives. If you want protection, you have to regulate the internet, not censor everything. A job perhaps for a new state call center agency? Finally, a reasonable job creation measure that is worth thinking about.
Jürgen Schöfer Ph.D.,
Biopreparat.Schoefer@gmail.com