On June 2017, the fake news story about the death of Vitalik Buterin caused Ethereum to lose 4B$ in Market Cap. In fact, Face Book and Google , are fraught with fake news of recent events that affect human lives -either the death of a popular celebrity or blaming an innocent person of a crime he/she did not commit. Moreover, this was true in the US election where special interest groups spread fake news on Facebook , Linkedin, Twitter and even google in order to win over large crowds for their political gains.
Recently, Facebook and Google promoted false news from Gateway Pundit story claiming that the shooter who killed more than 50 people in Las Vegas was a Democrat named Geary Danley , an Obama supporter who opposed Donald Trump. This lead to Geary Danley´s pictures being shared everywhere in the internet and death threats were sent to his entire family because people without seeking to know the truth jumped to false conclusion. Some points to note:
- Check the sources: you have to check the original source of the news before coming to a conclusion .For example, some sources are well known for their political or ideological views and will twist any story in their own favor.
- Do your own research: ask questions and search on well-known / credible platforms in order to know if the story is true.
- Read Past The Headline : read the main story in order to see the big picture-because some headlines are used to attract readers .
- Who Is The Author: the author can reveal a lot of information about the news source, so take note.
- Search If Other News Outlets Are Reporting It: if the news is real, then you can find it in most credible news platform.
Conclusion: Most of us are victims to online character assassination which is an unfortunate thing. In fact, fake news is everywhere: radio , TV, Internet, newspapers and can cause serious damage to our lives . It is therefore, important not to come to a premature conclusion rather we should do our own research via many credible sources in order to find out the truth.
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See my former post: Warning!!! Be careful of Scams in Steemit : Wallet Scams
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