Davos, Jan 24 (IANS) US President Donald Trump’s definition of fake news is “fundamentally fake”, meant to smear those who hold the powerful to account, the New York Times Managing Editor said here on Wednesday.

Trump often refers to the mainstream media as “fake news” and says that he, instead, prefers the social media to get his message out to the public.

“President Trump’s use of fake news is the real problem. The President’s definition of fake news is fundamentally fake. It’s an all purpose term to smear those who hold the powerful to account,” said Managing Editor Joseph Kahn during a panel session at the World Economic Forum here.

The US President earlier announced the winners of his so-called “Fake News Awards” for 2017, with the top prize going to a New York Times article. CNN, the Washington Post, Newsweek and ABC news were also on the list.

The session examined what can be done to protect democracy in the so-called “post-truth” world.

“Thanks to hacking, leaking and disputing the facts, it’s never been easier to distort the truth. Fake news and the digital world present a major threat to global democracy,” according to the panel discussion statement.

“Social media in particular has changed the way we consume and share news and information and accelerated the spread of inaccurate and misleading content.”

The New York Times Managing Editor urged Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to take steps for rooting out fake news by focusing on the quality of content they host.

“The social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram really need to think about the quality of the information they are hosting,” said Kahn. “They have not been doing enough to root out fake news.”

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Russian TV network RT Anna Belkina were also present in the session hosted by Zeinab Badawi from BBC News.

Responding to accusations that RT was helping Russia to spread and “weaponise information”, Belkina said that she “rejects those accusations and challenges accusers to deliver a single piece of evidence”.

–IANS
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