{"id":9068,"date":"2017-05-23T15:56:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T13:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/?p=9068"},"modified":"2017-05-23T15:58:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T13:58:13","slug":"spot-fake-news-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/general\/spot-fake-news-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Spot Fake News On Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not official until it\u2019s on Facebook, right? A concept that may seem farfetched to some, but has become increasingly prevalent in this day and age.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to Internet news, it appears as if we\u2019ve become conditioned to follow status rather than credibility. And with the amount of information constantly shoved in our faces, we tend to search for the simplest solution, which usually appears in the form of our \u2018friends\u2019 who also share content.<\/p>\n

In a way we can blame our conditioning as well as our surroundings, and say that trusting \u2018friends\u2019 is easiest, but if we can\u2019t distinguish between the credibility of news source, how can we then think of our friends as a credible source?<\/p>\n

While mentioning this, Facebook has recently announced that it wants to educate, as well as tackle fake news, and has therefore conceptualised new efforts to <\/span>stop the spread of false news<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe social network says its systems are getting better at identifying fake accounts and monitoring the ways in which users interact with articles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do you spot fake news?<\/b><\/p>\n

Be sceptical of catchy and sensational headlines<\/b><\/p>\n

False news headlines are often written in all caps with exclamation marks! If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.<\/p>\n

Investigate the source<\/b><\/p>\n

To ensure that the story is written by a source you trust, check their \u201cAbout Us\u201d section to learn more. At the same time check if the source is known for writing parody pieces.<\/p>\n

Check the formatting<\/b><\/p>\n

Read carefully. False news often has misspellings or awkward layouts.<\/p>\n

Look at the URL<\/b><\/p>\n

False news websites mimic but then alter their URLs ever so slightly so look carefully.<\/p>\n

Photos can be misleading<\/b><\/p>\n

Images are manipulated, and although sometimes authentic, they may be taking out of context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not official until it\u2019s on Facebook, right? A concept that may seem farfetched to some, but has become increasingly prevalent in this day and age. When it comes to Internet news, it appears as if we\u2019ve become conditioned to follow status rather than credibility. And with the amount of information constantly shoved in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":9070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/fakenews.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdAWxt-2mg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9074,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9068\/revisions\/9074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webafrica.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}