EDITORIAL - Fake news

There was some excitement a few days ago after an “official” proclamation from Malacañang Palace declaring December 22 as a special half-working day.

"Whereas, 22 December (Friday) is expected to bring heavy traffic throughout the country due to the holiday season...Now, therefore, I Ferdinand R. Marcos, R. President of the Philippines by virtue of the powers vested in me, do hereby declare Friday, 22 December 2023, as a special (half-working) day throughout the country," part of the alleged “presidential proclamation” read.

Those who saw a copy of the purported proclamation cannot be blamed if they were easily fooled; it looks official down to the logo of Malacañang Palace.

That the “proclamation” was shared by Presidential Assistant for Strategic Communications Cesar Chavez only helped to reinforce its truth.

However, the Palace Official Gazette later came out with its own statement that the special half-working day proclamation wasn’t true.

“This proclamation lacks official verification or recognition by the government. Please rely on official government sources for accurate information and refrain from disseminating unverified claims,” the statement read.

Chavez also apologized for his error.

Once again this shows how someone seeking to spread false news can easily make an official-looking document using the right words, images, visual instruments and, of course, graphics software.

Also once again this shows how people can easily be fooled, including government officials and, admittedly, the mainstream media. That includes this newspaper, which did publish the photo in its online edition for a while before taking it down.

This should be a lesson to all, us included, that some information should be verified first before it is posted.

This becomes more important now considering how easy it is to get copies of official presidential proclamations and stitch them together with official images using graphics software that anyone can buy.

Also taking into account how “successful” this fake news became, we don’t see what will stop malicious individuals from coming up with other fake announcements or presidential proclamations about holidays, special occasions, current events, and even political issues.