Aberje launches campaign to fight fake news

The Brazilian Association for Business Communication (Aberje) launched the first corporate collective initiative to combat fake news and misinformation in the country – an undertaking of LiderCom, a group that gathers officials and vice presidents of communication from the leading Brazilian organizations. The primary goal is to solve one of the main conditions that make false news prosper: media education.

According to a survey by the Ipsos Institute, carried out in 27 countries, Brazilians are the world champions in crediting false news – 62% of citizens acknowledged having already believed in a misleading report. The global average is 48%. “It’s essential to alert and enable people to perceive misinformation,” says Paulo Nassar, CEO of Aberje and professor at the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP). “We know that the business communication sector has an important social role in this.”

Within the scope of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), Aberje calls on the communication leaders of member companies to train their employees – and other organizational stakeholders – in media education and make them multiplying agents in the fight against misinformation. The idea is that by making organizations more immune to false news, the whole society will also become more immunized.

According to a study by the University of Baltimore, the annual cost of fake news in the world reaches US$ 78 billion, mainly due to fraud in the financial market, medical misinformation, manipulation of electoral elections, data leakage, and cyber attacks. “The moment calls for urgent action to overcome a phenomenon that compromises the foundations of society,” says Hamilton dos Santos, general director of Aberje.

Entitled “Aberje Alliance to Combat Fake News – Business Movement Against Misinformation,” the initiative is based on the code of principles of the International Fack-checking Network of the Poynter Institute commitments with non-partisanship, sources, accountability, transparency, and honesty.  On social media, the Alliance’s hashtag is #JuntosContraFakeNews.

For more information, visit the Alliance page: https://www.aberje.com.br/alianca-aberje