Disinformation? "Social networks are created to generate engagement"

In the workshop "Fake News: acceptance and correction of misinformation in contexts of social interaction", organized at ISPA (University Institute), in Lisbon, the academic from the University of Lisbon Amanda Seruti stated that "social networks are created to generate engagement, so regulation is important".

Amanda Seruti highlighted that election periods are more prone to misinformation due to greater funding for this type of campaign on social media and through digital influencers, for example.

In this sense, the academic from ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa Tomás Alves stated that "social networks are great for spreading quick messages", and that "more effective monitoring of account creation" is necessary, in order to identify who the good or bad agents are.

In turn, ISCTE academic Rita Guerra also highlighted that the State and the European Union (EU) must be held accountable for what social networks can do, saying that "the sources that produce the messages are well identified", so if there is regulation the issue of distribution can be better controlled.

Público newspaper journalist João Mestre, in turn, said that it was necessary to combat disinformation "one-on-one", especially because communicating to the masses no longer works, saying that the press is now an information "supermarket".

Furthermore, Rita Guerra also stated that there is "a huge lack of political will" for the development of media literacy, saying that "there is already space in teaching curricula to develop this subject", for example in subjects such as Portuguese or citizenship.

Lusa news agency journalist João Pedro Fonseca also took part in the debate, where he highlighted the lack of budget for the development of media literacy, stating that "a political commitment" was needed, in order to also boost critical thinking.

Amanda Seruti concluded by saying that media literacy is important to provide people with tools to identify disinformation narratives, "when information causes great emotion in the recipients, it is always necessary to be very alert", considering what she called individual responsibility.

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