Disseminating Fake News Through Translation: Critical and Ethical Concerns

Misinformation has been a global challenge for information and news exchange. Recognizing such a challenge, the UN has expressed concerns about the consequences of misinformation. Unfortunately, the problem is exacerbated when international news is subjected to deliberate modification or interference during translation culminating in reproducing fake news into the target language. The phenomenon has developed more with the spread of fake news in recent years. It is worth noting that the Arabic translation of some foreign news is significantly modified though widely spread especially in social networks. Such a situation requires serious attention to help control misleading news translation. This study addressed the spread of fake news through translation from a critical and ethical perspective. To this end, a set of original news stories and their corresponding manipulated or modified versions in Arabic were collected and examined. The modification strategies were investigated in light of Bielsa and Bassnett’s (2009) news translation strategies, followed by a critical discourse analysis using the sociocognitive approach proposed by van Dijk (2014, 2015). The results uncovered manipulation strategies such as Hyperbolization, negative other-presentation, framing, and blame transfer. The relevant ethical issues were stressed to raise awareness of translation ethics as a core principle in translation. The study outcomes are useful for researchers and the concerned public and private organizations as a first step toward developing tools to counter the proliferation of fake news through translation.