Contextualizing fake news: Can online falsehoods spread fast when internet is slow?

Falsehoods have always plagued social life, but the digitization of many aspects of social life has also facilitated the easy and quick spread of falsehoods online. Of these different forms of online falsehoods, fake news has taken the spotlight, rising to buzzword status following the 2016 presidential elections in the US that saw large-scale creation of fake news related to the presidential campaign, such as Pope Francis endorsing the candidacy of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton running an underground childhood sex ring. Scholars have identified various factors that facilitate the spread of online falsehoods. While many of the factors that facilitate the spread of fake news manifest themselves across many countries, some structural contexts are peculiar to countries in the Global South. Let's take a look at the Philippines, where high levels of social media activity occur within the context of an unstable internet connection, and where collectivism and saving face are culturally prioritized.