The Bible says that we should not give false testimony about others (Exodus 20:16). It may be a strange concept (sarcasm), but this applies even when talking about political leaders and famous people. It seems there are thousands of inaccurate messages spreading around-online and verbally- largely about Obama. Claims that he allied with governmental enemies. Photos of him committing various faux-paus (left hand over his heart). Spoof videos to prove his stupidity or his immorality. Obama's the big target for now, but it happens with the other leaders- local, state, and federal.
We have an obligation to ensure that to the best of our ability, the information we spread is true (as well as relevant; an actors private life is none of our business anyway, but a leader's is, because their behavior represents their ethics, which play out in their leadership). So many people assume that because someone they trust posted something, it's true. But often, it's not, if only because they received it from someone they trusted, on down the line. Going back to my last post, even the political discussions on the Christian Radio station have been factually incorrect at times(ie: about a Muslim "Mosque" that is really a community center with a religious component). So why do we assume that what we see on a social network must be true?
Sometimes, the person doing the posting knows that the information they share is fake, and assumes that everyone else will know as well. But then someone who wants to believe it, pays less attention to the inconsistencies, and so the information spreads, and is used to back beliefs. It may weaken the shock-factor to say ahead of time, that something has been doctored, or is a spoof, a joke, etc, but on the internet, where information flies faster and farther than you can say, "sike!", people must, if following biblical principles, clarify themselves. Otherwise, it amounts to false testimony.
Many times, people believe they are passing on true information. Well, if you didn't know the risk before, you know now. The information you receive still needs to be verified. It is easy to create fake photos and videos now. But it is also easy to look-up claims on snopes.com, which investigates rumors, and can quite-often tell you whether they're true, and how they know. Or look it up by typing "urban legends" into google, checking governmental sites, or checking the sites that belong to the quoted source (ie: if the video looks a lot like a CNN newscast, check the CNN site). Don't just assume that what you are passing along is true. Otherwise, you become a part of the problem.
Game of the Week: #8) Smugglers
12 years ago
Be careful of snopes. They aren't God, and not everything deemed "false" on snopes is false, nor vice versa. And there is plenty of info out there about how they are biased.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I can't say this with certainty, but I've noticed that it sometimes seems they could be avoiding posting certain myths that they don't want to confirm/deny; that they may pay more attention to the ones they like the results of. And they do (or did) acknowledge in some of the myths they label, "false," that they mean there is not enough evidence of truth and what they do have in evidence points to the idea that it's false.... That goes for the other sources I mentioned as well (there is bias everywhere), but there are a lot of good insights there. The photo I mentioned, for instance, has a copy of the original complete picture, with the date it was taken and the context in which it was taken, which enables you then, if you want, to look it up in the original newspaper, etc, to confirm.
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