Snopes is a good tool to use. Snopes is a website that fact checks articles. "This is where the muddled masses come by the virtual millions to establish just what the heck is really going on in a world turned upside down," according to the New York Times, a widely trusted news source. Snopes is unbiased. Snopes tells the truth. Fake news is proven wrong by Snopes. They research their topics. Many people utilize snopes because it is unbiased. Snopes does not lean left or right. It is universally trusted by both political sides. I use snopes because I trust snopes. It is a reliable resource. I recommend snopes to my friends.
Friday, April 20, 2018
A Green Moon?
A hoax claiming that s green moon would be visible on April twentieth went viral this week on Facebook. Space experts responded by saying there is no such thing and that there will not be any surprises involving the moon any time soon. This fake post has caused sites like EarthSky to be bombarded by searches about the green moon. A Twitter user said "My grandma shared this on FB and truly thinks there is going to be a “green moon” on 4/20." The post has now been deleted but this fake article caused a lot of searches on more about it online.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/04/18/green-moon-hoax-goes-viral-ahead-april-20.html
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April Fools News
Elon Musk joined in on the fake news on this year's April fool's day by tweeting out very controversial things about his company, Tesla. Tweets came out in April first stating, "Elon was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by "Teslaquilla" bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks." and "There are many chapters of bankruptcy and, as critics so rightly pointed out, Tesla has them *all*, including Chapter 14 and a half (the worst one)." Many critics online and investors did not find this very amusing as the company is having troubles and delays in production of vehicles that were supposed to be delivered to their customers already. Elon responded by saying he is confident in his company that why he decided to mess around and he has been working very hard to get production back on track.
https://www.cnet.com/news/best-april-fools-day-2018-pranks-on-web/
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image, 1 quotation, 1 link, 145 words]
Fake Crypto News
The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, denied false reports circulating online that they will introduce dollar trading. This large company handles a lot of trading daily and some days the trading value be over two billion dollars. Several articles circulating on twitter and websites claimed that Binance would introduce USD transactions to try to bring the prices of cryptocurrencies reports claim. This means that you can exchange different forms of digital currencies for other forms of digital currencies like tokens but not for a traditional euro or dollar. A spokeswoman said by email that these reports are "Fake News" and that Binance currently only does exchanges between cryptos and not dollars.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-20/crypto-exchange-binance-denies-it-will-introduce-dollar-trading
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link, 111 words]
Facebook Fake News
The most popular Black Lives Matter page on Facebook turned out to be a scam run by white Australians after recent reports. The page had nearly one million followers and had raised hundreds of thousands in donations from online fundraising. This was discovered as they saw funds being deposited into an Australian bank account and shortly after reports came out the page was shut down. CNN contacted someone who believed to know more about the incident but he simply said that he, " once bought the domain name only and sold it.” The CEO of Facebook when discussing these fake news issues says that he is responsible and it was his mistake and that he is sorry.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/04/10/facebooks-most-popular-black-lives-matter-page-was-a-scam-run-by-a-white-australian-report-says/?utm_term=.f5912ec12ec7
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Does Eating at McDonald's Make You a Cannibal?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/swap-meat/
It is a universal truth that people do not go to McDonalds
for their high-quality food. In fact, a lot of people are skeptical of what
exactly is in a McDonalds Cheeseburger. A story spread about one Oklahoma chain
that had traces of horse and human meat at their store due to lack of resources
of actual beef. “that McDonald’s article was just a spoof from the Huzlers web
site, which offers users the ability to “Create your own news prank and trick
your friends by sharing it”” Fact Check explains. So as questionable as McDonalds
Food can get sometimes, I think it is safe to say we do not have to worry about
becoming cannibals while enjoying a quick bite to eat there.
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Fake Coupons
Starbucks has become a target for trolls and fake news following its recent racial incident in a store in Philadelphia. A fake coupon that offers free coffee to people of color has been spreading around and has caused outrages. People responded to this by saying things like, "Even if it's not real, I bet Starbucks would honor it." Many of these fake news and trolls start on anonymous message boards and eventually make their way to bigger sites with more people on them like Reddit and Twitter which makes it nearly impossible to find out where the fake news originated from.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/trolls-spread-hateful-fake-starbucks-coupon-n867501
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Threats because of Fake News
Our President, Donald Trump, could probably coin the term
Fake News. It is a word he uses quite heavily and frequently. One site he
claims to be Fake News is CNN. Could this be the reason of the recent threats
by a Michigan man who threatened to come and shoot CNN staff dead? Multiple
calls were made by this man “Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down.” He told
an operator of CNN. Imagine the fear of the staff after this man called and said,
"I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f---ing
gun every single last one of you." The call was traced, and he was later
arrested. Crazy people like this exist in the world and that is why it is important
to watch what we say, you never know he may be keenly listening.
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Russia and NATO Scare
It is very hard to tell real from fake these days. It is
becoming increasingly harder with the skills people have to make and manipulate
pictures or videos to make them seem real. This is what happened when a video
spread about a nuclear war outbreak between Russia and NATO. The video seemed
to show a man in the BBC studio reporting about a missile attack, it even
showed a clip of the Queen being evacuated. “We’d like to make absolutely clear
that it’s a fake and does not come from the BBC.” BBC stated. Stories like
these are not new but are still a very scary thing. How can we tell what is
fake from the truth nowadays?
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The Global Issue of Fake News
Fake news is known to be an epidemic across this country,
but the reality is, it’s a huge issue globally. From all age groups people are
known to believe what they see without looking at the facts or the whole story.
An example of this is when a video spread across India of a woman getting
molested by a man. This hit hard for a lot of teenagers where it was widely
spread and even discussed in school where a lot of debates emerged about this
said incident. Later, the full video was released to show that the man was
simply saving the woman from a riot. “The students had trouble dealing with the
fact they had believed fake news.” Asia Times reports. No one wants to fall
victim of the popular fake news trend, but sadly it is very common for that to
happen especially when it comes to young, impressionable kids. I feel it is our
duty to set a new standard of News and stop the pattern. We must all come together
to share the truth and teach younger generations to do so as well.
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Starbucks Newest Scandal
It is a sensitive time in America where racial tension seems
to be on the rise. After an incident in a Philadelphia Starbucks that ended in
a wrongful arrest of two black men, rage spread across the nation. As a barista
that works at this Starbucks, we were informed on what do incase of a riot that
could possibly happen at our store. We were told about what to do incase of
angry customers that come in and so on as well. Starbucks is going above and
beyond to fix the terrible mistake that one store manager did, however, despite
the news going around, there is no coupon for one free drink for people of
color. “According to the Daily News, one of the coupons contains instructions
for the barista to punch in the code, ‘1488,’ a set of numbers associated with
white supremacist groups.” Informed Fox News. This fake coupon that has been
spreading also includes a QR code that when scanned will pull up the “N-word.”
So be aware when you stumble across this, no Starbucks will accept it and the
company is in no way associated with such coupon.
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How Fake News Has Plagued 2017
FAKE NEWS: TWITTER EDITION
This article talks about how fake news has taken over and become a house hold term in our country this past year. So many of the devastating things that have happened this year such as, school shootings, natural disasters etc have been trivialized. For example, once news of the terror attack on London many "news outlets" and people took to social media to post about it. Many tweets were being posted making it look like it was the people who were involved in the attack but that wasn't the case at all. The article mentions "Another tweet, shared more than 35,000 times, was from a user claiming his brother and sister were missing. But the image shared was taken before the attack and a Twitter user said it was actually a photo of a younger version of himself." This explains just how deceitful some people are and how far they are willing to go for fifteen minutes of fame.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-42487425
This article talks about how fake news has taken over and become a house hold term in our country this past year. So many of the devastating things that have happened this year such as, school shootings, natural disasters etc have been trivialized. For example, once news of the terror attack on London many "news outlets" and people took to social media to post about it. Many tweets were being posted making it look like it was the people who were involved in the attack but that wasn't the case at all. The article mentions "Another tweet, shared more than 35,000 times, was from a user claiming his brother and sister were missing. But the image shared was taken before the attack and a Twitter user said it was actually a photo of a younger version of himself." This explains just how deceitful some people are and how far they are willing to go for fifteen minutes of fame.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-42487425
An old news report about Floyd Mayweather's 2010 arrest appeared with a misleading title in July 2017. The report stated that Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather's fight had been called off due to Mayweather's arrest. The fake news report featured video of Mayweather walking into a courtroom that was recirculating from his prior arrest in 2010. The video was published to the web site Top Buzz under the title “McGregor vs Mayweather FIGHT IS OFF! Mayweather ARRESTED!! LIVE FOOTAGE”. The report did show a real video, however it was used in the wrong place due to its absence of relevance to the 2017 McGregor vs Mayweather fight.
A story has gone viral claiming the “March for Our Lives’ permit application was made months before the Parkland shooting. The story was entirely based off of misunderstanding and initiates that the shooting was completely staged and the rally was submitted months before February 14th, the day the shooting took place. The story was based off of an email exchange between James Fetzer and Scott Earhardt. Earhardt, a police officer for Washington D.C. MPD, suggested the rally was permitted way before the school shooting that left 17 students dead. He stated in the email, “In reference to your inquiry concerning the March For Our Lives Demonstration, here in the District of Columbia on March 24, 2018. MPD received a permit application several months prior to the actual event, and there was several months of planning for this large event”. FellowshipoftheMinds took this information and ran with it before confirming if it was factual information. Earhardt later confirmed that he confused “March For Our Lives” and March For Life”. MPD confirmed that “March For Our Lives” Permit Application for the rally was received February 21, one week after the deadly school shooting.
Did Fake News On Facebook Help Elect Trump?
After the 2016 election, many feared that fake news articles
spread on Facebook swayed the results of the election. It's a broad but
reasonable leap to make: many purveyors of fake news aimed to help Trump win,
and lo and behold, Trump won. Social media plays a bigger role in bringing
people to fake news sites than it plays in bringing them to real news sites.
More than one-quarter of voting-age adults visited a fake news website
supporting either Clinton or Trump in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. Not
sure if remembered any articles on facebook during the time of the election but
if they were fake or real either way they got people to vote for Trump. Maybe
they just target certain fackebook account. Weird how social media can control
our minds.
“Illegal immigrants cast votes”
Apparently this picture was front 2004 that was used saying that illegal immigrants cast votes in Pennsylvania race. A conservative website falsely reported that “trucks full of illegals” voted in the special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania that saw Democratic candidate Conor Lamb score a shocking victory over Republican Rick Saccone this week. Several of trucks full with illegal immigrants pulled up at the polls across Pennsylvania. Not shocking if someone did pay them to steal votes. You know things like this do happen, but they were probably tricked to vote here in the U.S. and probably were lied to that they could stay over in the U.S. if they voted.
Kim Kardashian West calls out fake news regarding husband, Kanye West. “Yeezy Mafia” posted a tweet stating that Kanye West “had stockists show up to an empty showroom and didn't present any apparel or accessories for his label's seventh collection because he couldn’t do what he wanted to achieve with the line”. Kim quickly shut down the rumors by tweeting multiple tweets stating, “How can a verified account represent Yeezy with false information," she wrote. "You do NOT work for Yeezy and NOT affiliated. How are you gonna believe an account that posts fake colorways”. But Kim wasn't finished there, she went on to add that the abandoned showroom was intentional and that the looks would be posted online on her Instagram page.
McDonald Pot-Smoking Center
Supposedly there
are 15 restaurants in the state of Colorado that have transformed or plan to
transform play areas into pot-smoking centers. Sure why not care about the health of the children;
just give them second hand smoke. McDonald's spokesman Khim Aday says he
"can confirm 100 percent that this is not true." “He said the false
story has circulated since 2015. The story said two Denver restaurants had
completed the conversion, while the other 13 were planning completion
renovations by the end of 2015. Legal recreational pot sales in Colorado began
in 2014.” Wouldn’t this have been wonderful for those who smoke and have the
munchies at the same time? Well make in 2030. When marijuana is not illegal and
everyone is doing it.
Suge Knight Death Hoax
Not sure if I heard about this article, but apparently
it supposed to been shared over 50,000 times on
facebook. I guess didn’t too many people care enough. This didn’t even make my
instagram timeline and I follow a lot of people and blogs. Apparently he suppose
to died over food. Over a chicken bone.
Now this is funny for someone to create a fake article about not only someone
death, but dying over a chicken bone. Someone was in desperate need for a story
line, sorry try again because it didn’t reach 50,000 people. LOL!! The article
goes on to quote a prison guard named “Jack Napier” as saying Knight was found
dead in his cell after a fight with another prisoner over food. Jack Napier is
the real name of the Joker given in the 1989 Batman movie.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suge-knight-dead/
"Fake News" & Russia
This story shows that Russia has created fake, thousands or maybe millions, of social media accounts to promote fake news, promoting different fake activities that were said to be going on in Russia.“Russia is using cyber as part of a wider effort to undermine the international system. This disinformation campaign is not just aimed at social media and the UK – it is intended to undermine the actual institutions and processes of the rules-based system, such as the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons. We must do all we can at every turn to challenge this", said by Theresa May.
Nuclear War "Fake News"
Yesterday, on April 29, 2018 at 6:35 p.m., there was a video posted on the local media by someone supposedly from BBC News, saying that there was a nuclear bombing happening in the United Kingdom, caused by the Russians' naval ships launching missiles. Quite a few people did not agree that the news was real, because no other news channel was talking about it, except the mystery man from BBC News. More male than female viewers believed that it may be false, the females were easily convinced otherwise. “Over the last couple of days we have had people contact various BBC bureaux, mainly in Africa and Asia, as they had seen the video on WhatsApp and wanted to check if it was a real BBC report,” a spokesperson for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/19/bbc-denies-reporting-outbreak-nuclear-war/
Biggest Study of Fake News EVER
This study contains around "126,000 stories, tweeted by 3 million users, over more than 10 years" (Meyer, 2018). On Twitter, or any social media platform for that matter, has more fake news than real news and the fake news spreads incredibly faster than real news stories do. The leader of this study, Soroush Vosoughi, has been studying fake news for 5 years said “It seems to be pretty clear [from our study] that false information outperforms true information..." This group of scientists have been trying to find a plan to finally put an end to the fake news once and for all. Can they do it?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/largest-study-ever-fake-news-mit-twitter/555104/
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/largest-study-ever-fake-news-mit-twitter/555104/
Man Arrested for Sharing Fake News?
"On Wednesday, the Goa Police Crime branch arrested 35-year-old, Kenneth Silveira for posting a fake Facebook post about Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's medical condition" (Bureau, 2018). The man shared a post on Facebook that Parrikar had passed away, but that was not true at all. Parrikar is alive and was only undergoing treatment for his illness. Even after he posted about Parrikar's "passing" people corrected him and he refused to take his post down. He was arrested for posting fake news as well as not cooperating with the police. Be careful what you read online! Nothing is trustworthy nowadays.
https://www.newsx.com/national/facebookgoa-man-arrested-for-fake-news-on-manohar-parrikars-death
https://www.newsx.com/national/facebookgoa-man-arrested-for-fake-news-on-manohar-parrikars-death
How to ban fake news?
Fake news has been a big problem for all countries for such a long time, but has Malaysia found a way to stop it? Although Malaysia does not have a huge problem with fake news, "Malaysia has passed a law criminalizing it, with a penalty of up to six years in jail" (Head, 2018). Any information run by the government and not verified by the Malaysian government is considered "fake news." Only problem I see with this is that if the government doesn't want something to get out to the people, they can claim it to be fake. Hmm I don't know about that..
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43637744
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43637744
Statistics!
I was researching some statistics about fake news and after reading these, I have to share. They are going to blow your mind.
It is said that when getting on Facebook or Twitter, the user spots fake news more than once a day. With that statistic, "A poll conducted by Morning Consult for the Alliance in September found that 41 percent of people turn to their social media feeds for the news" (Peters, 2017). That doesn't make sense if you ask me! The last statistic I found that was so crazy to me was that only 16 percent of people sharing fake news were aware that it was indeed fake news!
https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/fake-news-concern/
It is said that when getting on Facebook or Twitter, the user spots fake news more than once a day. With that statistic, "A poll conducted by Morning Consult for the Alliance in September found that 41 percent of people turn to their social media feeds for the news" (Peters, 2017). That doesn't make sense if you ask me! The last statistic I found that was so crazy to me was that only 16 percent of people sharing fake news were aware that it was indeed fake news!
https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/fake-news-concern/
Third Grader Schools Donald Trump About Fake News
"A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)", said by Donald Trump. A few days ago, a boy named Noah, explains to Donald Trump (via video recording), the real meaning of "fake news". Trump publishes a lot posts about people and "fake news", but his way of defining it is tremendously inaccurate. For being a third grader, Noah has a better way of explaining what fake news is. Therefore, Donald Trump should have gotten the memo, because a lot of people are besieging him about his defective posts.
http://time.com/5246643/jimmy-kimmel-trump-kid-fake-news/
http://time.com/5246643/jimmy-kimmel-trump-kid-fake-news/
What to Avoid??
Pace University has created two lists on what to do when reading the news and also what to avoid when trying to find a trustworthy article. Some of the things to avoid are...
- Distorted headlines (ones "to generate likes, shares, and profits" (Pace University, 2018).)
- Unreliable websites (do your research!!)
- Social media descriptions or clickbait headlines
- Funny websites trying to post about politics or other serious topics
There are only a few of the many things to avoid when looking for a reliable website. Always do your research and make sure the article your reading is coming from a legit website or platform.
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Jordan Peele/Barack Obama: Fake News PSA
Fake news can be easily spread, even by editing the presidents videos. Jordan Peele shows a video, via internet blog, that he can easily pretend to be the president and spread out fake news. A lot of people are easily persuaded by the media, which can be kind of tricky to identify scams. Inadvertently, Buzzfeed is a company that is known for trying to disoblige fake news for views, most of their posts are erroneous. It is very defecating how technology companies can pretend to be someone else, fundamentally, to sabotage that person's well-being. The very advanced software that most companies are using is called "AL", a database that can identify or capture fake news. In Jordan Peele's video, he captured his self as Barack Obama using the AL software, which is awesome but an insult to the president. "The best shield against this sort of misinformation is instilling everyone with a little more media savvy", said by the author of the
General Kurt W. Stein & Fake News
A few days ago, Gen. Kurt Stein said something that was very cruel, "calling harassment "fake news"". The accusation caused Stein to get fired. Sadly, a few days before that meeting, he made some inappropriate remarks that caused him to be placed under investigation. So far, Stein has proved that he is no longer fit or worthy for his position as a General. "Leaders are responsible for establishing an environment conducive to mission accomplishment", said by LT. Col. Eric Dent. Not only was Stein fired but another General was fired, within 2 months of each other. Harassment should be took more seriously, no matter what the case is.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/04/16/general-accused-calling-harassment-allegations-fake-news-fired.html
Snopes.com
Snopes.com is a fact-checking website and is a widely known
resource for validating and debunking urban legends and related stories in
American popular culture, receiving 300,000 visits per day in 2010. It was
launched back in 1994. It is consistently included in the annual “Best of the
Web” lists and has been the recipient of two Webby awards. This site has been
referenced by news media and other sites, including CNN, MSNBC, Fortune,
Forbes, and New York Times. By March 2009, this site had more than 6 million visitors
per month. Even though there have been complaints of Liberal bias than Conservative
bias, FactCheck.org found them to be free from bias in all cases.
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