Colombian Election: Fake news affects country's election season

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02:40

Election uncertainty in Colombia has citizens divided. Could that make voters more susceptible to fake news? Let's take a look at how fake news has affected this election. Our Correspondent Michelle Begue has this story from Bogota.

Colombia's election season has been plagued by fake news. Just ask the voters!

LILIANA BERNAL BOGOTA CITIZEN "This weekend I heard that candidate Ivan Duque was campaigning and he was attacked by African Bees, and the response from his campaign was that the attack came from the other candidate."

ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ BOGOTA CITIZEN "I heard candidate Petro was going to close down places of worship if he reaches the presidency."

JUAN DAVID TOBAR BOGOTA CITIZEN "I get a lot of chain messages through WhatsApp and I ignore them because I know it is false news."

While some lies are easy to spot because they're so outrageous. Others are more credible. They distort reality and leave questions in the minds of voters.

One fake news story says right-wing candidate Ivan Duque will destroy a 2016 peace accord with FARC rebels. Duque said he only intends to modify it.

Left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro was once a member of a demobilized guerilla group called the M-19, making it easier to portray him as radical. Fake news stories falsely identify him as a candidate of the now disbanded FARC guerilla group, fake stories say he'll turn Colombia into another crippled economy like Venezuela.

Analyst, Daniel Rivera, says fake news is swaying the vote.

DANIEL RIVERA COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT "I would say one third of Colombian voters who will cast their ballot on Sunday, will do so because of fear from false news and manipulated stories."

Fear and smear campaigns have been around for centuries. But wireless technologies and social media makes it easier to spread misinformation.

A study by the United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that false claims were 70 percent more likely than the truth to be shared on Twitter.

DANIEL RIVERA COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT "Fake news goes after emotions, they reaffirm prejudices that you have towards a candidate, towards a fact or something in their life, and they touch a fiber in you. And while we blame the fabricator, a lot of the responsibility is on the audience and citizens."

MICHELLE BEGUE BOGOTA "Passing on information from reliable news sources only is one way to stop the spread of false news. That still might not be enough. Many analysts also say that when citizens no longer trust the news media, they rely more on emotions than facts to make their decisions. Michelle Begue, CGTN Bogota, Colombia."