Fake stories abound on social media. Sensational, provocative, and inflammatory news stories featuring "clickbait" headlines are the most likely to be shared among social networks.
The spread of fake news on social media is a real problem. According to a Pew Research Center report over 40% of adults in the US go to Facebook for their news. Many people believe these false and misleading stories, videos, and images, which can have a detrimental, real-world consequences. To prevent the spread of false news on social media, before you share, stop and verify.
Below are some tools to help you identify fake news on social media, and to stop it from spreading further.
Check the account history of the source. Two red flags are: the number of posts and how long the account has been active. If it claims to be a well-known source (like CNN or CBS) and only has a few posts in its history that is a clue. If it's a well-known source and the account has only been active a short time, that is another red flag.
Which of the following accounts is fake? How can you tell?
Images of an event may be reused to deceive people. You can check if an image has been used before using a reverse image search engine.