海角大神

Italy鈥檚 annual security report, released this Monday, warned about online 鈥渋nfluence campaigns鈥� that aim to 鈥渃ondition both the sentiment and political orientation of public opinion, especially at election time.鈥�

But for Giovanni Zagni and his team at the Pagella Politica media project, the warning was unnecessary. With parliamentary elections looming on March 4, they鈥檝e been fighting fake news for the past three weeks of the electoral campaign.

Each morning, they decide which fake story they鈥檒l spend the day debunking, choosing from a pool of fake news, misleading titles, and articles that mix real and false elements. 鈥淚n these first days of the program, when we鈥檙e still trying to show people what we do and that they can trust us, we鈥檙e focusing on the more blatantly false stories,鈥� says Mr. Zagni, the chief editor of the team of independent fact checkers hired by Facebook Italy ahead of the election.

Facebook is not alone in its battle against fake news in Italy, where pre-election anxiety over the potentially destabilizing effects of fake news has been mounting for months. Efforts are underway across the country, driven by both government and nongovernmental actors, to fight misinformation聽鈥� through rebuttals like those of Pagella Politica and by teaching Italian students how to spot fake news on their own. But when it comes to preemptive action against fake news by targeting sites online, Italy鈥檚 options remain unclear, as the government says it needs internet controls to stop organized propaganda, while critics warn the government鈥檚 plans risk stifling online freedoms.

Debunking fake stories

In November, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the leader of the center-left Democracy Party,聽made an appeal to social media companies. Mr. Renzi has blamed his party鈥檚 fall in the polls on fake news. 鈥淲e ask the social networks, and especially Facebook, to help us have a clean electoral campaign. The quality of the democracy in Italy today depends on a response to these issues,鈥� he said.

Indeed, TVs and newspapers have been actively fact-checking news and statements from politicians every day. Earlier this year, the police introduced an anti-fake news service called Red Button, which allows citizens to report fake news. Italian debunkers like blogger David Puente and websites specializing in debunking, like (bufale is Italian for 鈥渇ake news鈥�), have thousands of followers.

Pagella Politica and Facebook Italy have tried to go a step further. The team has produced 16 articles that Facebook Italy automatically connects to fake items, giving its users the option of sharing聽the debunked article instead.

For example, if an Italian user of Facebook decides to share an item telling the story of the nuns in Bassano del Grappa who spanked a Moroccan migrant for selling drugs, the social network will let him know the story he鈥檚 about to share is false. Instead, it will offer him the option of sharing the debunking article written by Pagella Politica, explaining that different versions of that story have been circulating in the web since 2009.

Zagni says the majority of the fake news circulating on the web, like the spanking nuns story, 鈥渋s not strictly political,鈥� but many 鈥渇oster a general mood regarding migration with a xenophobic tone鈥� 鈥� a particularly hot-button issue this election season.

Zagni says he鈥檚 aware Pagella Politica鈥檚 fact-checking efforts reach only a small segment of people and voters on Facebook. But he feels it's worth it. 鈥淲e鈥檙e reaching a small segment of the population that鈥檚 exposed and more vulnerable to fake news. If we can prevent them from sharing some of it, we can say we had a positive influence in this election.鈥�

Equipping students to spot misinformation

Arturo Di Corinto, an Italian journalist and expert on the internet, argues that efforts like Pagella Politica鈥檚 can鈥檛 solve the problem, however.

鈥淲e know that fake news relies heavily on confirmation biases, so it鈥檚 not enough to expose people to accurate information,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are two main problems regarding media in Italy. On one side there鈥檚 a mainstream media ecosystem that nourishes propagandistic claims and fears. On the other side, 30 percent of Italy鈥檚 population has functional illiteracy, which means they can鈥檛 understand what journalists write.鈥�

That sort of concern is what spurred the Italian government鈥檚 creation last fall, in cooperation with internet companies including Facebook, of a program to teach students how to detect fake news: Basta Bufale, or 鈥淓nough with Fake News.鈥�

Elena Benaglia, an Italian teacher at the Liceo Classico Alessandro Manzoni in Milan, a university preparatory school dedicated to humanistic studies, is one of the teachers in the program. She has been teaching her students how to recognize fake news and conspiracy theories online, including through the use of tools that identify fraudulent articles or photomontages, for example.

But, most importantly, says Ms. Benaglia, they develop an awareness of the need to check the sources, as well as an understanding of the Italian law regarding matters of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

鈥淲e teach them that just as classic philologists need to be critical about their sources, modern news producers need to follow a certain path to discover if a source is reliable or not,鈥� she says.

Stopping fake news at its source?

Reliability of sources has been a major concern in Europe since the British referendum to leave the European Union and the United States election. Both of those have raised growing suspicions, albeit unproven, of misinformation campaigns originating in Russia and targeting European voters.

Italian fact checkers like Zagni and Mr. Puente say they haven鈥檛 been able to track the fake news they debunk to Russia, but Mr. Di Corinto, the journalist, insists that鈥檚 not true.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 just something we know,鈥� he says, pointing to . 鈥淭here are several websites more favorable to the Italian far-right party Northern League and the Five Star Movement and we can trace fake accounts registered in the Russian Federation. I鈥檓 not saying those accounts are financed by high [entities], but they鈥檙e based in Russia.鈥�

But regardless of the fake news鈥檚 organizers, it鈥檚 not clear how to respond to them. Antonio Nicita, commissioner of the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCom), says that in order for national authorities to investigate possible misinformation campaigns, it would be more effective if social media companies provided access to user data rather than focusing on debunking fake news.

鈥淭he problem is not only fake news but the possibility that we鈥檙e facing strategies of misinformation and we want to focus on those,鈥� says Mr. Nicita. 鈥淲e want to know if someone 鈥� for advertising or political reasons 鈥� is organizing a system with several false accounts or false connections to influence the opinion of voters or consumers. While fact-checking initiatives like the one promoted by Facebook are somehow useful to tackle the problem of hate speech, fact-checking won鈥檛 solve the problem of polarization.鈥�

But Di Corinto warns that this sort of effort would end up effectively regulating the internet, and threaten online speech.

鈥淭he battle against fake news is a battle against the internet,鈥� he says. 鈥淭raditional media, desperately trying to grab readers鈥� attention, is producing fake news too. Even if the virality of the web facilitates it now, disinformation and propaganda campaigns have always been a means of influence.鈥�