The Imperative of Responsibility in the Era of Fake News

Fake news concern has caught the attention of the researchers by the necessity to identify solutions in order to combat this phenomenon. Thus, intervention in the field of ethics could be a possible solution. Therefore, we propose to update, rethink and reformulate the imperative of responsibility of Hans Jonas in the era of fake news. In order to do this, we will start with some clarifications on fake news, arguing that the appeal to the responsibility of the actors involved in creating and spreading the phenomenon has a threefold responsibility: towards us, towards others and towards those from the future. This could lead to a better life; therefore, using the phenomenological method, we briefly describe the fake news phenomenon; and completing this method with the hermeneutic analysis, we propose a new imperative of responsibility that would respond to the actions and behaviour of people in the fake news era. The purpose of the present study is to suggest a new imperative of responsibility, which brings together critical reflection and commitment to self and otherness. Starting from this, a digital ethics can be developed based on the concept of responsibility.