Fake news hawkers have copped a sizeable telling off from Pope Francis, who has compared the phenomenon of spreading scandalous and false stories online to coprophilia—an abnormal fascination with poop.
The Pope's pop at phony folk who run fake news stories on the Web—published mostly to stir up bizarre and frenzied smears against politicians and other public figures—sits at the extreme end of clickbait and, for many commentators, it left a skid-mark over the recent US election.
"I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey—without offence, please—to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true," he told Belgian Catholic weekly newspaper Tertio. "And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm."
The Oxford English Dictionary describes coprophilia as an "Abnormal interest and pleasure in faeces and defecation," while the word coprophagia refers to people who eat faecal matter.
He said that it was sinful to circulate fake news, adding it was "probably the greatest damage that the media can do." And described the spread of misinformation as deeply harmful because "opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth."
He also warned—in a nod to the so-called "right to be forgotten" debate—against the use of slander to smear politicians that "can be used as a means of defamation," adding: "in defamation, we leak a document, as we say in Argentina, 'Se hace un carpetazo'—and we uncover something that is true, but already in the past, and which has already been paid for with a jail sentence, with a fine, or whatever. There is no right to this. This is a sin and it is harmful."
The Pope's pungent words on fake news and coprophilia can be read in full on the Vatican's website, which has published a transcript of his interview with Tertio.
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