My biggest fear right now is the possibility that I’ve read a fake or forged article that manipulated me into believing it was true. That’s why I usually avoid sharing news until I’m sure it has some truth to it. This article from BBC Future by David Robson is wonderful. However, since Elon Musk introduced community notes with a strict application to posts even by large media platforms, I’ve started following those platforms on Twitter, and it works well for fact-checking—but still, many sources are left unchecked, and no one seems to care.
I notice a lot of people carelessly spreading false news, even when they suspect it might be untrue. Honestly, they just don’t care, but from a broader perspective, this can be dangerous—it can fill people with intense hate and fear. In short, be mindful when sharing anything online. And when someone shares false news for fun, don’t hesitate to confront them directly.
As ‘alternative facts’ fill our social media feeds, BBC Future examines a more rational approach to digesting information.
From claims that The Simpsons predicted Trump’s presidency in the Year 2000 to the absurd story that the Queen has joked about assassinating Trump, our social media feeds are awash with lies and misunderstandings.
Just consider the 29 January shootings in a Quebec mosque, by Alexandre Bissonnette. In just a few hours, conspiracy theories had begun to percolate, claiming a police cover-up to protect a Muslim accomplice.
As David Mikkelson, the co-founder of myth-busting site Snopes, puts it: “The bilge is rising faster than you can pump.” Tellingly, Snopes’s own traffic almost doubled – to 13.6 million monthly visitors – in October last year, as readers struggled to make sense of the events leading up to the election.