Fighting Fake News in the Post-Truth Era
So, what is fake news exactly? Propaganda, clickbait, deepfakes, fabrication, disinformation and misinformation can all be called fake news.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as ‘false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media’.
Jan-Werner Mueller said in a recent Project Syndicate article, in relation to fake news that ‘we have entered a new phase of history in which truth no longer matters’. This new phase, known as the post-truth era, is characterised by the ‘prioritization of personal beliefs over factual accuracy’. While the Cambridge Dictionary defines post-truth as ‘a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts’. And the Oxford Dictionary describes it as a situation where ‘objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.
Of course, fake news isn’t new. And alongside misinformation, it’s been used to manipulate public opinion for decades. But technology, social media and citizen journalism have ensured that false stories can spread in a matter of minutes, instead of days and weeks, without being fact checked and denounced. A study by MIT discovered misinformation spreads faster and reaches more people more quickly than the truth. And it’s presented brands with a serious challenge.
This year, The World Economic Forum has gone as far as ranking digital misinformation as one of the leading global risks alongside the misuse of AI.
The beginning of the post-truth era
So what is the post-truth era and when did it start? The shift to this post-truth age can be traced back to 2016.
2016 was the year in which the UK voted to leave the EU and Donald Trump was elected US President for the first time. It could be argued that both events were plagued by misinformation and there was a blurring of lines between fact and opinion.
Post-truth is all about saying what people want to hear, rather than presenting them with proven facts. It’s about appealing to their emotions rather than logic. In the post-truth era, it’s hard to tell the difference between truth and lies, honesty and dishonesty. And this blurring has intensified in the years since 2016.
Before I delve into the implications for brands operating in this post-truth era, let’s look in more detail as to how we got here.
The shift to post-truth
On June 23rd 2016, 52% of the British public voted to leave the European Union, marking a ‘watershed moment in British history.’ But, as journalist Sam Bright, pointed out it was also a watershed moment ‘for open deception going unpunished’. He makes a good point.
According to Professor Tim Unwin, much of the Leave campaign was built on ‘half-truths and emotive mis-representations’. And no-one was held to account.
A prime example was Vote Leave’s key message, which was emblazoned across the Brexit campaign bus. ‘We send the EU £350 million a week.’ It said. ‘Let’s fund our NHS instead’.
It was a strong argument. After all, the NHS is the UK’s ‘biggest source of national pride’. But it wasn’t exactly true. The £350 million didn’t account for the country’s rebate of £75 million a week, or payments made to the public sector. According to The Guardian, the true figure was closer to £136 million a week.
Misleading message went unpunished
29-year-old entrepreneur Marcus Ball attempted to prosecute Boris Johnson over the false Brexit bus claim, but the case was thrown out by a High Court judge. And, despite attempts by the media and The Office for National Statistics to debunk the myth, 42% of the British public believed the claim.
Trump’s tales
Brexiteers weren’t the only exponents of post-truth in 2016. During his electoral campaign, Donald Trump allegedly made a staggering 104 false claims.
For example, in a tweet about his now defunct Donald J Trump Foundation, the republican candidate said, ‘unlike most foundations, DJT never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!’
But reports by The Washington Post and others went on to claim he used more than $250,000 from the charitable foundation to settle lawsuits and donate to political groups. The Washington Post, also claimed that during his four years as President, Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims, from six per day in 2017 to a whopping 39 per day in 2021.
It was a prime example of political whitewashing and fake news. But it wasn’t enough to deter the American voting public in the 2016 and 2024 Presidential elections. Whether something was true or not did not seem to matter to his supporters. Instead, what was more important was the enthusiasm and conviction with which something was being said. Emotions and beliefs outweighed objective facts. And as a result, Trump swept to victory again last month.
Post-truth reporting
For many commentators, one of the most noteworthy elements of these events was the degree to which both campaigns displayed an utter disregard for facts, instead relying on emotive and false statements designed to sway voters.
As both of Trump’s campaigns demonstrated, we’re living in an age where people engage with fake news much more readily than real facts. Analysis by BuzzFeed found that fake news stories received more than 8.7million shares, reactions and comments on Facebook in the last three months of the 2016 campaign alone. The most popular stories included false claims that the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump and that Hillary Clinton had sold weapons to ISIS and was disqualified by law from holding public office.
Some of the stories were spread by political activists trying to discredit opponents, while others were invented by hoax sites to make money from when they went viral. In December 2016, Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she criticised the ‘epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda’ that had flooded social media, adding that ‘it’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences.’
Brands caught in the crossfire
Global brands Pepsi and New Balance also got caught in the online Trump vitriol when company executives were misquoted in fabricated articles that went viral, and consumers called for boycotts of their products.
Pro-Trump websites incorrectly quoted former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi as saying that Donald Trump supporters should ‘take their business elsewhere’, while anti-Trump websites quoted New Balance’s vice president of public affairs saying that New Balance was the ‘official brand of the Trump revolution.’ As a result, some customers burned their New Balance shoes.
How misinformation and distrust hurts brands
Living in a post-truth world, unfortunately means living in a post-trust world. As a result, the public are now questioning the validity of information presented by the institutions, businesses and brands they once trusted.
This is evident from Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer Global Report which reveals that trust dropped across all four institutions of government, business, NGOs and media, with trust in the media dropping by a record 5 points. While an industry report from the Havas agency, noted that ‘much of the trust, respect and loyalty people had for many brands has disintegrated. You see it in the level of cynicism, scepticism and indifference that people have towards them’. Havas also reports that 87% of executives think consumers have a high level of trust in their businesses but only 30% of consumers say they do.
According to a Qualtrics XM Institute report, consumer trust is higher, with 50% of consumers trusting the brands they do business with but conclude that consumer trust continues to be at the low levels first seen in 2016.
So what can brands do? With consumers overloaded daily with fake news and false claims, maintaining brand trust has become an ongoing challenge for marketers.
The challenge of maintaining trust post-truth
As HyperComply rightly says, ‘trust is the foundation upon which lasting customer relationships are built. It plays a pivotal role in driving business growth, customer loyalty, and long-term profitability.’
So to build and maintain trust in a post-truth world takes a multifaceted approach. Brands must:
Be authentic and transparent: Brands must commit to being open and ethical in all their marketing, storytelling and employee relationships.
Be customer focussed: Brands must respect their customers and ensure they receive a consistent experience at every touchpoint.
Build a community: Businesses need to nurture a community that advocates for your brand and will draw other customers in. An engaged community who supports your brand is also likely to call out fake news when they see it too. Brands that have created loyal communities include Lego, Apple and Nintendo.
Work with influencers: In an era where trust in the mainstream media is diminishing, brands need to collaborate with credible and highly trusted influencers. Examples would be financial guru, Martin Lewis or fitness expert, Joe Wicks.
And how to handle fake news when it happens
Starbucks were caught up in a fake news story back in 2018, that saw fake coupons circulating online offering free drinks for African Americans as part of Black History Month. The coupon was shared across all social media platforms and the story was picked up by the mainstream media. And, of course, customers went into Starbucks stores and tried to redeem them.
This fake news story had the potential to damage the brand’s reputation and be an operational nightmare for staff working at the stores.
The Starbucks PR team quickly swung into action, using monitoring tools to gauge public reaction and issuing a clear and rapid response across all its social channels and website. The team also responded directly to consumers on social media too, explaining that the coupon was fake and apologising for any confusion caused. This helped the brand maintain trust with its audience.
Fake news: The steps to take to mitigate damage
The five steps to take to fight fake news:
Online monitoring
As we’ve seen from Starbucks, it’s vital to monitor your brand online so you can stay ahead of any fake news stories as they bubble up. Monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, GatherUp and Hootsuite can help you monitor social media conversations and reviews.
Respond quickly
As soon as your business spots a fake news story, you need to respond quickly to make the facts known. It’s important to get your brand’s true position on an issue understood immediately, and not deliberate too long on developing a flawless statement. After all, if you don’t counter negative news with your own story, you will open your brand up to even more fake news. Think of it this way: If you fail to articulate your own message, everyone else has the opportunity to define the message for you. If someone else gets there before you, it’ll take that much longer to take back control of the narrative. This is where your PR consultant is worth their weight in gold.
Flood the media with positive stories
In this situation, your brand must fight fire with fire. And this means flooding the media with positive stories.
New Balance did a good job of this, particularly with their social media messages. They released strongly worded statements on all their social channels, reinforcing their brand values, telling consumers who the company is, what it stands for, and what it doesn’t stand for. They were upfront and consistent with the messaging, which benefited them in the long run.
Engage directly with your customers
Talk to your customers directly, be completely transparent if something has gone wrong and provide clear and accurate information. If you’ve built a loyal community, encourage them to question and rebuff any fake news stories they see about your brand.
Make every employee a brand messenger
Once you’ve decided what the response will be, every employee needs to spread that same message, from junior members of staff to the CEO. The only way to effectively manage a post-truth PR crisis is to make sure the entire company knows the true story and can communicate it well. Never overlook an employee who might take to social media with an opinion of their own. This is especially important if you’re a consumer-facing brand.
Today, there are hundreds of fake news sites around, from those that deliberately imitate real newspapers, to those which tread the fine line between satire and plain misinformation. So it’s worth taking steps to protect your company from a possible fake news attack and ensure you protect the hard won trust you’ve built with your customers.
