Why Hong Kong-style fake news is the real deal

For a long time this city has been a pioneer of incidents seemingly so bizarre that they cannot possibly be true – but they generally are. And long may it continue, writes Niall Fraser

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US President Donald Trump has popularised the term ‘fake news’. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:40pm, 17 Apr 2018Updated: 9:55pm, 17 Apr 2018

Love it or hate it, the expression “fake news” will probably come to define the age of unprecedented change we find ourselves slap bang in the middle of. I’ve never really understood what it means, in my book it’s either news or it’s not.

Spark up your smartphone, turn on the goggle box or, if you are old school, pick up a newspaper, and before you can say Grim Reaper, a headline, a tweet or social media meme sets the tone for a daily diet of doom and gloom.

The sense that things are spinning out of control – among the chattering classes anyway – reached something of a critical mass at the weekend when the US, Britain and France launched a military attack on Syria, a move some fear could draw Russia, Iran and an increasingly assertive China into a global military conflict.

A satellite image shows a research centre in Damascus after being struck by US and coalition missiles. Photo: Reuters

In other words, there was a genuine feeling abroad that the world could be entering the end of days. And depending on your point of view, the end of the world, if it comes, may well have been the result of “fake news” events of a chemical nature.

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While Hong Kong can often seem a tad detached from the rest of the world and be prone – understandably – to unhealthy amounts of navel gazing, I have reached the conclusion after reviewing a body of anecdotal evidence gathered over 25 years, that this city pioneered real “fake news” a long time ago and continues to peddle it to this day.