Final Essay

The First Amendment gives the rights to the individuals in the United States to freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Free speech is an important right that allows individuals to express their thoughts freely. However, there are consequences for authorizing freedom of speech as a right. The ability that people can share their ideas and thoughts on social media has caused social and political issues. Due to the fact that there is not much regulation of what people can say or post on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, people tend to post fake news. The idea of fake news has been expanding widely since the election of 2016. Fake news has caught the attention of many people because this

The politicians also take advantage of the platform of the social media to attack others through words. Since the election of 2016, the problem of “fake news” has significantly impacted the society in the United States. As stated by Denise-Marie Ordway, “Much of the fake news that flooded the internet during the 2016 election season consisted of written pieces and recorded segments promoting false information or perpetuating conspiracy theories” (Ordway). Ordway shows how people utilize “fake news” to influence public opinions towards the election. In this case, “fake news” impacted the social media users because the false information misled the people to think and act differently. For instance, the conspiracy theory, “Pizzagate”, did not only influence the way that the people in the United States think toward the presidential candidates, but it also led to violence. The White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, “It's deeply troubling that some of those false reports could lead to violence” (Stelter). There are people who believed the false information, and took action towards it, which caused violence such as bring guns to the restaurant. This is one of the evidences that shows that it is necessary to take the issue

This can mislead the people in the country to make wrong decisions, such as the election. False news can also be disadvantageous for candidates who run for the presidency. It is reasonable to conclude that false news can impact the election in bad ways because no one can prove that the rumor of conspiracy did not contribute to the loss of the presidential election for Hillary Clinton. An article from a scholar shows that the Pacifica’s radio station in Berkeley, KPFA 94.1 FM, mentioned, “There’s a lot of fake news, propaganda and misinformation emanating from phony media outlets” (Borgstrom). The article focused on how fake news affects the election, such as the Russian propaganda effort helped to spread false information about the candidate. This may be an important factor in the election. An article from the New York Times claims that “American intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump, according to senior administration officials” (Sanger). It supports the argument that the ability to spread rumors across the social media has a great impact in a political aspect. Also, the people in the United States contributed to the fake news of the candidates due to