How to protect yourself from fake news in your Facebook feed

CNN
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Just because What is said on the Internet does not represent the facts. It seems simple, but if everyone knew this, Facebook and Google wouldn’t have to pull fake news sites from their advertising algorithms, and people wouldn’t be breathlessly sharing stories claiming Donald Trump is secretly a lizard man or that Hillary Clinton is a robot in a pantsuit.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Fake news is In fact, it is easy to find – if you know how. Consider this your guide to new media literacy.

Note: In preparing this article, we sought the advice of two communications experts: Melissa Zimdars, PhDAssociate Professor, Merrimack College, Massachusetts Its dynamics List of unreliable news sitesAlready popular, Alexis Manzaris, International Fact-Checking Network At the Poynter Institute.

Zimdars says Websites with strange suffixes Domains such as “.co” or “.su,” or those hosted by third-party platforms such as WordPress, should be cause for concern. Some fake sites, such as National Report, have legitimate-sounding names that are not overly generic and can easily fool people on social networking sites. For example, several false reports from abcnews.com.co went viral before they were debunked, including a June article that claimed President Obama had signed an order banning the sale of assault weapons.

2. Does the title match the content of the article?

Mantzarlis said one of the biggest reasons fake news spreads on Facebook is that people are drawn to headlines. No need to click.

Just this week, dubious groups circulated stories about PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. One headline trumpeted: “PepsiCo shares plunge after CEO tells Trump supporters to ‘take business elsewhere.'”

However, the article itself does not contain that quote, nor is there evidence that PepsiCo’s stock price dropped significantly (it did not). Nooyi did make recorded comments about Trump’s election, but never said he told Trump supporters to “take your business elsewhere.”

sometimes Legitimate news reports may be distorted and reproduced Fake news was published years later to create confusion. Manzaris recalled that one false report actually quoted a real news story from CNNMoney.

A recent report by a blog called Viral Liberty that Ford had moved some of its truck production from Mexico to Ohio in response to Donald Trump’s election victory quickly became a sensation online—after all, it seemed like a major victory for the American auto industry.

It turns out that Ford did move some manufacturing from Mexico to Ohio in 2015. This had absolutely nothing to do with the election outcome.

Photos and videos are also available Quoting out of context to support the false accusation. In April, the liberal website Occupy Democrats published a video that purportedly showed a young woman being removed from a bathroom by police for not looking feminine enough. At the height of the HB2 “bathroom bill” controversy, the article explicitly linked the two. “It Begins,” the headline read.

However, the video is undated and there is no evidence that it was filmed in North Carolina, where the bathroom bill was close to passing.

In fact, according to Snopes, the same video was posted on a Facebook page in 2015, meaning it predates the HB2 controversy.

5. Does the article cite primary sources?

Political news isn’t the only area where fake news can occur. Now8News is one of the most notorious fake news sites, specializing in publishing bizarre stories that often go viral.

One of the articles claimed that Coca-Cola had recalled Dasani water bottles after “obvious parasites” were found in the water. The article also included a disgusting picture that allegedly showed the parasites, but a Google search revealed that it was most likely a photo of a baby eel.

Anyway, this article No statement or claim is made by any companyThis would obviously be big news. Dasani or any consumer advocacy group would have issued a statement or press release about this, right? But there was none – because this story was 100% false.

6. Are there any quotations in the story? Are they traceable?

A favorite meme on liberal Facebook groups features a fake quote from Donald Trump that is said to come from a 1998 People magazine interview:

“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They are the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. Even if I lie, they’ll still believe it. I bet my approval ratings would be high.”

This claim is easily debunked if you take a moment to think about it: People.com has a massive archive; Citation not found In them.

Pope Francis has been involved in three super viral and completely false reports this election season. According to various (fake) websites, the Pope endorses three US presidential candidates: First, Bernie Sanders, according to The National and USAToday.com.co. Then, Donald Trump, according to the fake news site WTOE 5 News. And finally, another fake news site, KYPO6.com, reports that he endorses Hillary Clinton!

In all of these cases, follow-up reports came back as false. Tracing the story back to its original sourceIf you find yourself stuck in a loop — or if they all lead you back to the same suspicious site — then you have reason to be suspicious.

Both Zimdars and Mantzarlis said Confirmation bias is a big reason Fake news spreads so quickly. Some of this is built into Facebook’s algorithm — the more you like or engage with an interest, the more Facebook will show you content related to that interest.

Likewise, if you hate Donald Trump, you are more likely to believe that negative stories about Donald Trump are true, even when there is no evidence.

“We seek out information that already fits our existing beliefs,” Zimdas said. “If we’re exposed to information that we don’t agree with, it may still reaffirm our beliefs because we’re trying to find errors.”

So if you come across an outrageous article that feels “too good to be true,” be cautious: it probably is.

Did you know there’s actually an International Fact-Checking Network (led by Manzaris) that has a set of principles? These principles include ideals like nonpartisanship and transparency. Sites like FactCheck.org, Snopes, and Politifact adhere to these principles, so if you see a debunk there, you know it’s true. You bought the authentic. Click here to see the full list.

This is Things could get trickyThere is obviously a big difference between “misleading” news, which is usually based on fact, and “fake news,” which is just fiction disguised as fact. Zimdars’s famous list covers both types of news, as well as satire and sites that use clickbait headlines. Snopes also maintains a list.

While Zimdars is pleased her list has received so much attention, she also warns that it’s not accurate to completely dismiss some sites as “fake.” “I want to make sure the list doesn’t do a lot of damage to the ultimate goal,” she said. “It’s interesting that some of the titles [about my list] Just as exaggerated as what I’m analyzing.”