Last weekend, after Hurricane Matthew, I read a disturbing story. It seemed like in Florida, a riot occurred at a mall. Thirty-one people died. That’s what I read in a Facebook article. But something didn’t seem right. That’s because the story was fake. There was no riot at a mall. Nobody died in violence. There was no violence. Lets’ see how Facebook deals with the fake news epidemic.
Six weeks ago, Facebook revamped their trending system. Yet, a group called The Intercept conducted an experiment. How much fake news would they find? As a result of their experiment, quite a few. They discovered five stories that were blatantly fake. Another three were inaccurate. And that’s an understatement. In addition, blog posts from blog site Medium made it through the Facebook feed. So did links from iTunes.
Furthermore, they probably didn’t catch every false news story. How can they? That’s because Trending tailors to each Facebook account. Your trend feed won’t be the same as somebody else’s. However, some stories top the news…or lack thereof. Some trending stories include how a man was kicked off Clemson University campus for praying. Clemson quickly called the story false. Seems like the iPhone 7 can perform magic tricks. That’s according to Facebook trending stories. Then there were those ugly fake stories concerning Fox News correspondent Megyn Kelly.
Consequently, Facebook has no comment. What can we do to stop this trend? Quite a bit. If a news story sounds too fantastic, check out other news sources. In no news source backs it up, you know it’s fake. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. I read my article and just felt something wasn’t right. I’m glad I checked. The story isn’t real. Remember that the next time a celebrity dies. If the person really has passed on, mainstream news sites worldwide will cover it. If it’s a hoax, no self-respecting, trustworthy news medium will cover it. I try not to even click on stories that sound fake. Don’t even give them the attention. What else can we do to quell fake news?