Can you even tell the difference between real news and fake news?
Written by: Camila Garcia
The Spread
Did you ever hear how Hillary Clinton was involved in a child sex ring from the inside of a pizza restaurant? Or how Hillary Clinton was selling weapons to ISIS and also how Pope Francis was endorsing Trump for President? Were you about to share with one of your friends? Well, these are all real examples of fake news and you almost fell for it. Fake news has become a growing issue, where it goes beyond a single community. From the political arena to high schools, it is all around us at this point and day. It has gotten to a point where many people, including adults, do not know how to distinguish between real news and fake news. It has became most popular on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. In this article, we will go through the problem that fake news is stirring up on social media platforms. Over time, society has become overly dependent on the media to do research about significant events occurring, we are all depending on what social media is releasing. So, am I saying that most of social media news stories are not trustworthy? Yes, whatever you are reading on Twitter or Facebook, is most likely fake. The spread of fake news on social media is causing a lot of controversy throughout society. As a witness to this problem, I understand the damage one fake news story can cause to a person, which is why I am here to bring awareness to this issue.
An image of a screen filled with many fake tweets that have been generated by users.
The Cause
Fake news has always been around, but it became a bigger issue when it started hitting social media. It has become one of the biggest factors contributing to the success of these fake news stories. Social media has always been a space where no one is restricted to believe only one thing which is why it is so popular. Everyone is in titled to their own opinion but sometimes these opinions are the cause to disruptions and chaos. The problem with this entitlement is that people have forgotten what it is to fact check a source. It is much easier to just believe a tweet or post that includes some type of statistics. With the access to share information at such a fast rate, information that most of the time has not been fact checked, it has the potential to reach millions of people. In today's society, people were never taught to research information before sharing it, everyone automatically assumes that the tweet they are reading is a legitimate source of information and then continue to share it with their friends. When was the last time you researched that post before sharing with all your friends?
A study was conducted where about 126,000 rumors were spread out on Twitter. The rumors were spread by 3 million people. The false news reached way more people, the top 1% of false news reached between 1000 to 100,000 people whereas the real news only reached about 1000 people.
Most popular fake election stories on Facebook in the United States in 2016
The Effect
The problem of fake news goes beyond a “he said, she said” dilemma. It is affecting families and entire communities. Many people believe fake news does not affect them in any way, shape, or form. When in reality, it is affecting us all. Fake news is contributing to many shootings, attacks, and disasters occurring against us. There has been many incidents that were caused by the effect of fake news. One of the famous incidents was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria shooting, which was caused from the effect of fake news and it is a clear demonstration of the damage spreading fake news can drive a person to commit horrendous acts including murder. Not only has the spread of false information become a major issue in politics, but also in social media and national security. It is affecting the way we view the world and our discussions with other people. Fake news has become so popular that it is difficult to bring awareness to this issue because everyone believes it is not affecting them, that it is only affecting others. Therefore, it does not matter to them. The perception of media bias is occurring everywhere, people believe that the “other side” of society are the ones who are spreading all the fake news. In reality, no one is innocent in this mess of spreading fake news. It only takes one person to open it, like it, and share it. A study determined that found that real human Twitter users are 70% more likely to retweet fake news than truthful stories. People enjoy novelty and they like to share it with others.
A graph demonstrating how many people are sharing different types of fake news. It doesn't just apply to political news. It has became an issue with every famous event that is occurring.
The Pizzeria Shooting
One of the famous accidents that was caused because of fake news was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria shooting. The father of two, Edgar M. Welch, decided to take matters into his own hands after reading the widely spread story of Hilary Clinton running a child sex ring from inside the restaurant. After driving over six hours to the pizzeria, not long after arriving, he fired an AR-15 riffle. He was quickly detained, and thankfully no one was hurt. Welch explained to the police that he was armed to help "rescue the children".
The Media's Influence
The media is contributing to the spread of fake news. For many years, social media has been a home for these fake news stories because there is no way of confirming or denying these stories. These social media platforms realize how popular they are, stories that are posted on these sites spread like wildfires even if they are real or fake. As of now, the media has not done anything to prevent these fake stories from reaching millions. Instead, they have developed “bots” which increase the spread of fake news depending on what the user is searching up on their profile.
High School Security Guard
One day at Ronald Reagan High School, fake news took a toll on the life of a security guard which had a nickname of Abu. A video surfaced Twitter, a famous social media platform, which caused the story to become viral. I remember getting to school the next day and there was maybe 4 news vans, parked in front of my school filming and interviewing students. From that point on, the video was everywhere including news channels and different platforms of social media. The school board had no choice but to fire this security guard due to the many phone calls from concerned parents and family members. In the video, it looks like the security guard was on the roof, pretending to "shoot at students" but what these stories didn't include was that the students were telling him to do those gestures and the video was almost a year old from when they decided to post it on Twitter. These security guards always try to make the best of their jobs since it revolves around teenagers. Also, these students decided to share this video a week after the Stoneman Douglas high school tragedy in order to spark up some reactions. Obviously, these kids didn't think the video was going to become viral and end up with the security guard getting fired. From what I have gathered, Abu lost his job for over 5 months while investigations were going on. Finally, he was able to come back at the beginning of this school year. This is an example of how fake news can work in ways that may ruin the life of a person.
What can be done?
Fighting false news can seem like a game of whack-a-mole as authorities rush to detect fake accounts, correct the story, and control the fallout. It is about time that these social media platforms put a stop to these fake stories. There has been enough damage done to the lives of people for a change to happen. Intentionally misleading news has been around since before the invention of the printing press. Now, fake news is being fueled by the advances in technology from bots to algorithms. From what it seems like, technology may also be the key to stop the spread of fake news stories. It is time to make a change.
“We’re in a new world where it is going to be increasingly difficult for us — for anybody — to make sure that the information being conveyed is accurate,” - Professor Joseph Stiglitz
NewsGuard
NewsGuard is one of the solutions that can assist in getting rid of the spread of fake news. A web browser plug-in will show users these ratings and reviews, which NewsGuard is also licensing to social media and search companies to include in their products. NewsGuard says it will also help advertisers avoid fake news websites. To check the sites, they use a checklist of nine criteria that typically denote trustworthiness. Sites that don't clearly label advertising lose points, for example. Sites that have a coherent correction policy gain points. "The tool is designed to maximize transparency", says Steve Brill, NewsGuard's cofounder.
Algorithms to fight Algorithms
Algorithms are part of what spreads fake news. Interesting yet false stories which become popular can be pushed out to users by the software that runs social networks. But some programmers think computer code could also be part of the solution. First Draft is working with Google and Facebook to explore whether they could incorporate code to stop the spread of fake news. Human language and news stories are complicated in ways that computers have difficulty dealing with, and any method of fact checking risks reflecting the biases of the programmers who created it. "There are some very smart people looking at automated solutions now, around automated fact checking, which can get up to about 80% accurate," says Claire Wardle of journalism non-profit First Draft News.
