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

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.

http://libguides.pace.edu/fakenews

Sites to watch out for that contain fake news

CBS News posted on their website some of the many sites that leak fake news daily. Here a just a few..

• 70news.wordpress.com

CBS News states that "[70news.wordpress.com] said Trump had won the popular vote by 700,000 votes. He had not." 

• abcnews.com.co
• infowars.com
• worldnewsreport.com
• thebostontribune.com
• christiannews.com

These websites are in a category along with several others that is named as fake news. These sites cannot be trusted due to their high rate of false and fake news being posted at least daily. No matter how legit and trustworthy the sites look or sound, make sure to check your websites and sources before trusting the website.

Fake News World

Fake News World

On March 20th, 2018 the Facebook page News World uploaded a video of supposed Muslim immigrants “attacking” a catholic church during mass. This accusation is untrue, but was based off a real event. According to Snopes.com “The post contains no evidence that backs their conclusions about the protesters’ religion or whether they were new arrivals to the country. Furthermore, the protesters did not “attack” a Catholic church, and mass was not in session during the incident as claimed”. Additionally, a French news article said “The Coordination des sans-papiers group has deployed a banner denouncing the "Asylum - Immigration" bill put forward by the government. "They were very respectful. They made noise, that's all. There was no aggressiveness, "says an employee of the Basilica”. The supposedly hostile group that “attacked” the church was in reality just a group of peaceful protesters that a Facebook news source took and slapped an untrue label on.  

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/muslim-migrants-attack-catholic-church-mass-france/

http://www.leparisien.fr/seine-saint-denis-93/saint-denis-80-personnes-manifestent-dans-la-basilique-pour-les-sans-papiers-18-03-2018-7615809.php

https://www.facebook.com/786888781492026/videos/942478112599758/

Trump and Propaganda

When beginning to read this article, it struck me as obviously biased, by stating in the subtitle that "It’s a tactic that Hitler used as he came to power", comparing President Trump to Adolf Hitler. First off, this just shows how immature and biased this website is. Basically, this article is trying to compare the United States and the President now like Nazi Germany in World War II, stating that he will soon use his power to become a fascist. They believe that we will start another world war, and continuously state how he uses propaganda to gain power, when there is no reputable source that shows where he has used such things.

https://www.canva.com/learn/examples-of-propaganda/

Johnny Depp Death Hoax

Claims that Johnny Depp had drowned on the set of The Lone Ranger flooded the internet in 2012. Many non credible sources began to quote and spread the news where the story would change from drowning to a freak car accident. As it turns out, the crew member Gore Verbinski was actually the unfortunate one that passed away on set from drowning. He went in to full cardiac arrest by the time he was found. The reason Depp was in the midst of this was because he was on the set with him, and information had been intercommunicated through the press. This is "not the first time he's been killed off by the Internet" as back in 2010, another car accident hoax formed.

http://www.eonline.com/news/352814/johnny-depp-not-dead-still-alive-and-hot-
as-ever-after-drowning-hoax

Polish First Lady Declines Trump's Handshake

In this article, it begins to describe the trip that President Trump made to Warsaw, claiming that she declined to shake his hand. By reading the title, one is to assume that she flat out declined his handshake and refused to engage in one, but reading on further states otherwise. By claiming that she had "at first passed by Trump’s offer of a handshake", then going on in the next paragraph to say that she in fact shook Melania Trumps' hand first "before turning to shake the President’s hand after all". The title is very misleading and leads to a lack of credibility, and shows the bias towards the President.

http://time.com/4847276/donald-trump-agata-kornhauser-duda-handshake/

Trump Takes Credit for Exposing Fake News As President

As Trump became our new President, he brought with it controversy, as many like to believe. Though we believe that as humans, we think it is easy to tell if a source is credible. Donald Trump likes to take the crown for the finder of fake news, and taking "credit for exposing 'fake news' for what it is", though he claims he does "respect some reporters in national news". We can't always take someones word for news sources when it comes to credibility due to bias, and the fact that our President never named the credible sources or non credible sources leads us to wonder where we should find our evidence next.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/379795-trump-takes-credit-for-exposing-fake-news-as-president

Finding Fake News

When looking for credible sources of news, it can be hard as many sources like to change the story or leave out information as to appeal to their audiences. It is best to find a good and credible source by looking for an author, reading the headline and determining if it is one sided or neutral, reading subtexts and subtitles to see if it is slandering the topic or changing the main idea, checking the website to see if it is reliable, and checking for accurate dates and accurate quotes. On the Psychology Today website, they list different ways to spot fake news, and state that "If it sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is!", which is one of the first things you should always do.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/socially-relevant/201711/how-spot-fake-news

How to Recognize Fake News

The recognition of fake news has sparked Facebook and Google to looking into the phenomenon. The news consumers are one of the main defense into finding fake news. Not all of the information is completely false because people must make it so it is more believable. Only some parts are false and that's why you must carefully gather information. People made a FastCheck feature, where they "answer readers’ questions, the vast majority of which concern viral emails, social media memes and the like." If you want to make sure of information yourself, make sure your source is trustworthy, read beyond the headline, check the author, and what their support is. Also make sure that it isn't a joke, check your biases, and lastly, consult the experts. 

https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

What is Fake News?

Donald Trump has been using the term "fake news" for a while now. It wasn't a commonly used word 18 months ago however, " it is now seen as one of the greatest threats to democracy, free debate and the Western order." It was even the 2017 word of the year. People can use fake news to gain "support and quash dissidence." One way to tell whether something is considered fake, is to do proper research before making any unnecessary assumptions. Make sure that you find trustful resources and make sure all the information is adding up and stating the absolute truth. This is only one way to find out for yourself on information that you need. So don't just go believing the first thing you hear on the news before proper evaluation. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/fake-news-exactly-has-really-had-influence/

YouTubers Help Children Learn About Fake News

 AsapSCIENCE and Smarter Every Day are two YouTubers that are wanting to take initiative in helping "teach kids how to discern what is fact and what is fiction when they’re reading news articles or watching YouTube videos." Google also wants to help by wanting to invest $10 million for literacy efforts like media literacy and teaming with YouTubers to educate children about the fake news that lies in the world. Unlike CNN, YouTubers are not seen as a news organization so it goes to their advantage when relaying information. Buzzfeed is an example of wanting to relay information that is accurate. Over the next few years, both Google and YouTube will have great influence in combating fake news. 

https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/21/17147272/conspiracy-theories-youtube-asapscience-smartereveryday-alex-jones-wikipedia

AI Can Solve Fake News Problems?

There are a lot of lies that go through news or in stories in general and there aren’t many of us who can detect them. There are "fact-checkers and journalists who try their best" to find fake information however, there just too many lies. Facebook Journalism Project funded $200,000 out of the $1.2 million to help for the development of virtual fact-checking. The AI algorithm that was invented so that it would follow strict rules and compare information that is known as the truth. Chengkai Li, a scientist at the University of Texas and lead researcher of ClaimBuster, first started out with an algorithm to follow a set of rules. Later, they taught code to the computer to compare any type of statement to any factual data. They still have not completely finished the project but it would nice to decipher information as the truth or just fake news.

https://www.popsci.com/can-artificial-intelligence-solve-internets-fake-news-problem