March 27, 2019

Arab communities need to be educated on new media technologies to counter fake news, says AMF speaker

Amjad Taha, Director of the British Middle East Center for Studies and Research, said that in the media, the truth is always subject to manipulation, which forces us to look beyond what we see or read. He said there are a large number of news channels, newspapers and websites that are used by some entities to mislead the public and promote hidden agendas.

Taha said the UAE’s experiment in development, guided by its leadership, changed the country and transformed it into a successful model for modern nations. He was speaking at a session titled ‘Beyond the Truth’ on the first day of the Arab Media Forum 2019.

At the onset, Taha thanked the government of New Zealand for using the logo of the UAE’s Year of Tolerance in its campaign to counter the terrorist attack in Christchurch. He also extended his gratitude to the Arab Coalition soldiers fighting in Yemen.

During his session, Taha discussed the history of news broadcasts on radio and TV. He said the first Arab newspaper ‘Al-Waqa'I’ was published in Egypt in 1800, the first radio channel was launched in 1934 and the first TV channel was introduced in Iraq in 1954. Today, there are 1,349 Arabic TV channels, he said.

Taha said the new millennium brought the onset of social media, which virtually turned into news agencies owned by individuals with their own views. He said there are over 6.3 million Arab subscribers on Twitter, 64% of whom are under 30 years old. They post over 27 million tweets per day. This, according to Taha, forces us to investigate the truth about misleading information published on social media.

Taha said that over 23,000 fake Twitter accounts have been used to attack Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. However, these fake accounts were countered by 2 million real Twitter accounts that revealed the truth.

Concluding his session, Taha stressed on the importance of increasing awareness among Arab communities and educating the new generation on modern technologies and media production techniques to take advantage of the internet and counter fake news and hidden agendas.