Vatican City, Sep 29, 2017 / 05:24 am
With social platforms increasingly targeting so-called "fake news," Pope Francis has decided to weigh-in, dedicating his message for the 2018 World Day of Social Communications to providing the truth and eliminating the spread of false information.
Announced Sept. 29, the theme for the 2018 message is: "The truth will set you free: Fake news and journalism for peace."
A communique from the Vatican Secretariat of Communications, headed by Msgr. Dario Eduardo Vigano, said the Pope's message will be centered on "so-called 'fake news,'" which is "baseless information that contributes to generating and nurturing a strong polarization of opinions."
Fake news, the communique read, "involves an often misleading distortion of facts, with possible repercussions at the level of individual and collective behavior."