Hello everyone in the wonderful hive blockchain. I hope you're all doing great and enjoying the weather wherever you are. Once again, I'm grateful to the hive learner community for their wonderful initiatives.
The hive learners’ community has again presented us with another amazing topic and I'm so glad to be participating in it.
I'm very happy that this topic came up. Just last month, I went for a seminar outside my state, where we talked about fake news and how it can destroy things.
In this 21st century, it is very easy for anyone to generate fake news, as long as you have your cell phone. Social media platforms and the Internet have made it very easy for people to mislead the audience for their personal gain. What most bloggers do today is to generate and publish fake news just to generate traffic for themselves.
Before I went to that seminar, I had always imagined how those bloggers come up with such content. They even tried making it so real. They can forge something and claim a celebrity said it, they’d even forge a screenshot with the celebrity’s name and verified blue tick on it. The public would have no other choice than to believe it (even if it is for just a few hours). I was very surprised when the speaker showed us how these bloggers generate fake news just with an online website.
Social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter, have become home to fake news bloggers. I joined a page about football on Facebook. The name of the page is Facebook planet. As a big football fan, I always like to keep up to date with football news. But all this page does is use clickbait, make the thumbnail real, and the content absolutely different from the topic. Why are they doing this? Well, I can think of three good reasons why they do this; their main reason is to generate traffic. Another reason is to mislead the public intentionally and to have fun.
Source
The news we see on our Twitter pages or Facebook feed may appear to be real, but most of them are absolutely fake. Fake news can also be used for political reasons; to influence people to support a particular political party or to damage another political party's reputation. A few years ago, while I was still in high school. I had an android phone then and I had accounts on different social media platforms. A blogger posted that Buhari; the president of Nigeria, is dead and that the person in Aso Rock is another person from Sudan. This news went viral that differ t bloggers posted the same news and pointed out different proof that the president was dead. The news went viral, and even people that we're not on the internet believed it. Even till now, there are lots of people who claim that the person in the presidential seat is another person, not Buhari.
Types of fake news
Source
Clickbait
If you're a blogger, or you read articles on blogs, then I'm sure you'll know what clickbait is. Clickbait is the use of fabricated content and eye-catching titles to generate traffic. Clickbait is often used by bloggers and fake websites to generate clicks and likes.
Misinformation
Misinformation is a type of fake news; an untrue narrative that is fabricated to deceive the public to gain clicks or generate traffic.
propaganda
Source
News that is deliberately shared to alter the public’s view about a political matter. This is often used during election periods. A political party can share fake news about the rival political party, to destroy their reputation and gain favor from the public.
Effects of fake news
People share/publish fake news for fun and to generate traffic for themselves. But the question is, are they aware of the negative effects of what they're doing?
Fake news spreads like wildfire and can quickly alter people’s beliefs, thereby leading to crises or war. One thing about the public is that they believe fake news too quickly without fact-checking.
In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. People shared different fake news about the disease. While some said drinking salt and plan oil can kill the virus, others said frequent sex helps prevent the disease. A lot of people fell for it.
Have I ever had an experience with fake news?
Yes. I've been affected by fake news lots of times. Years back (when I was still in elementary school), the news went viral that Barack Obama was part of the 666 and that he was about to take over the world. I remember how my neighbor and even my sisters cried and prayed over it.
Just this month, I've been deceived by lots of bloggers that shared fake news about the ASUU strike.
The one I’d like to share is quite funny. Although I didn't fall for it, a lot of people in my streets and even in other states fell for it. A month ago, someone sent me a voice note on Whatsapp and told me to share it with everyone on my contact list. The person that forwarded the voice more to me was not even on my contact list. That was not the first time someone would send something like that to me. At first, I wanted to delete it and block the person instantly, but I changed my mind and listened to the voice note. In that voice note, a woman was shouting and crying. She said someone appeared to her at midnight around 1 am and kept on knocking on her door until 3 am. She said the person was crying and the voice sounded familiar (like one of her relatives), so her sister (who was also in the room) decided to open the door and she disappeared immediately.
I just laughed it off and blocked the person immediately. I was returning home that day (I had traveled to another state), when I saw people putting leaves on their doors. At first, I thought they were celebrating a festival. I was even more surprised when I got to my street, there was no house without leaves hanging on the door. Even when I got to my house, I saw leaves on our gate.
When I got down, I had to ask someone because I was very confused. The person told me about that voice note and how the community chairman insisted that all houses must place leaves on their doors. They said the person that appeared to that woman and kidnapped her sister (in the voice note) was a spirit, and the leaves help drive spirits away.
The voice note got to so many places. Even in my church, people were talking about it.
Well, after the first day, I decided to remove the leaves from my door and nothing happened. After a few days, the leaves dried up and everyone removed them from their doors.
In conclusion,
One thing about fake news is that it spreads like wildfire. What those bloggers are using to make fun, can turn out to be disastrous. Fake news can lead to war, especially if it is related to politics and religion. Politics and religion are critical matters and topics about them can make people go crazy.
The main tools people use to share fake news is social media platforms, especially Twitter and Facebook.
We should be careful about what we post on social media platforms and we should also try to fact-check news before believing them.
Thanks for reading.