Calls for a verification site for government information
In the wake of the recent Easter Sunday attacks, innumerable information was shared on various social media platforms without verification by the public that compelled the government to temporarily block some social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
The Business Times spoke to some of the tech experts in the country for a solution to identify ‘actual news’ from the ‘fake news’. Some suggested that the government should provide verified information on an official website while any unverified document could be perceived as ‘rumours’.
Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Rohan Samarajiva shared his thoughts about the prevailing situation with the Business Times and how ICTA can assist in setting up a verification site (VS).
He said, in the current circumstances, there is heightened concern about intentionally disseminated falsehoods (disinformation) or falsehoods disseminated in error (misinformation). Intentionally distorted photo-shopped copies of a government letter are ‘disinformation’ and forwarding some inaccurate information unwittingly is ‘misinformation’. There is interest in a technical solution to the problem of verification. In the past, there was a way to verify official information from the government — the Gazette. But this has become overly bureaucratic. “The question of interest on a technical solution is whether we can place documents short of what is normally published in the Gazette in another site,” stressed Mr. Samarajiva.
The solution to this depends on the following pre-conditions being satisfied, he elaborated. “Government information comes from hundreds of sources. We have to persuade multiple originators of government information to publish their letters, announcements and so on, on the VS. The procedures for placing information on the VS must be secure and bar unauthorised information from being placed on the site. The damage would be worse than the original problem. The VS must adequately publicised.”
The old method (Gazette) had a solution for all three problems. Many documents draw their authority from being gazetted. There was no choice but to publish in the Gazette. The long established Gazette (since 1802) has procedures to ensure only authentic government information is published. It is well known, he explained.
The difficulty with the pre-conditions may be illustrated using the example of the leaked memo that established the intelligence failure that occurred prior to April 21. It has to be accepted that the public interest was served by the publication of the memo on social media. When the Police Spokesperson, Ruwan Gunasekara was questioned about the veracity of the memo on the evening of Easter Sunday attacks, he was non-committal, saying he would check and answer the next day. It is unlikely that a leaked document would ever be published on the VS, noted Mr. Samarajiva.
However, there is no harm in setting up a VS, he said. The legitimate authority is the Department of Government Information (DGI). If a request is made and the funds are provided, ICTA can assist in setting up a secure VS. The task of persuading government agencies to publish their documents on the VS has to be undertaken by the DGI, he added.