Who Can You Trust?

In a world overrun by fake news, an important question to ask yourself is who can I trust? I'm not the only one who feels this way: "people are increasingly challenged to find online sources they can trust." Regardless of what your favourite news source is, there's always someone telling you that it's fake news, and of course, you retaliate by telling them that their favourite news source is fake news. It's an endless battle of I know you are, but what am I? So how do we solve it?
Hearing about these complaints, Facebook and Google among other companies are doing their best to solve the problem by adding fact checkers to their sites, but "fact checkers get facts wrong, too." With no solution in site, the only cure is "a very large dose of healthy skepticism." [1 picture, 1 link, 3 quotes, 138 words]

The Real Avril Lavigne Died and Was Replaced By a Doppelgänger

It's not the first time, and it won't be the last time a celebrity has been accused of dying and being replaced. The victim this time? Avril Lavigne. It started with a Portuguese blog and got way out of hand from there. Since then, countless accounts have looked into this theory and even come up with evidence to back up the theory, including the fact that "Avril today [has] fewer freckles on her arm than Avril before 2003." While a lot of this is far-fetched, this brand of celebrity fake news comes about because people love a good mystery, and conspiracy stories like this one, regardless of how false they may be, keep the public entertained. It seems like a little harmless fun, but in reality we have no idea how this might be affecting poor Avril.
Celebrity fake news is some of the easiest fake news to spread, because often the celebrity in question has no interest in engaging the public and the rumours. Occasionally, you have celebrities who speak up and deny the answer, but people in the public-eye often want some privacy. [1 picture, 4 links, 1 quote, 185 words]

Lizard People: The greatest political conspiracy ever created

Everyone important to pop culture is a lizard. You heard me. I'll say it again: Everyone important to pop culture is a lizard.
Let me take a step back. There's a group of people who believes that lizard people, hell-bent on "world domination" have taken over pop culture and political figures in attempt to take over Earth. So what is a lizard person? Well, Vox describes them as "cold-blooded humanoid reptilians who have the power to shape-shift into human form." They have certain aspects about them that give away their identity. Despite supposedly being caught on tape, many celebrities deny any hints of being reptilian. So who do we believe? Does fake news go too far when it rips the humanity away from regular people? I think that news like this just ends up being unintentional libel, which is detrimental to celebrities. Despite their fame they're regular people behind the camera. [1 picture, 3 links, 1 quotes, 151 words]

The Real Story of Fake News

There are many ways to interpret the meaning of "fake news." Some people equate it with networks that are bad at reporting, some people equate it with news that disagrees with their opinions, but I think it's time we debunk the denotation. Merriam-Webster defines fake as "false, counterfeit" and news as "material reported in a newspaper," so why doesn't the entire term "fake news" appear in the dictionary, if it's a young fan favourite? Merriam-Webster responded to the concerns by telling us that compound nouns are only added to the dictionary if they take on a "meaning that is independent of the meaning of fake and news." Currently, the meaning of "fake news" is simply that: reported material that is false. While fake news might be a trendy phenomenon, it's far from original in meaning. [1 image, 4 links, 3 quotes, 135 words]

Australian Government Accused of Forcebly Vaccinating Ressidents; Rachel Wresh

Early 2016 YourNewsWire.com, a frequent fake news outlet, published a story that the Australian government had been releasing a genetically-modified vaccine aerially without the consent of residents. Not only was this story completely false but it was merely a revamped version of an earlier story released in 2013 by PreventDisease.com. While versions of this vaccine have been approved by part of the National Department of Health, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, they specified, “not only that the vaccine is taken orally, but that the trial would be restricted to 1,000 people who were already planning to travel to areas where the disease is prevalent,” (National Department of Health), so it will be quite some time if this vaccine ever does becomes airborne.  

Apple Deny Deliberately Slowing Down Millions Of Old iPhones

December 12, 2017 Sean Adl-Tabatabai Technology 1

 

There was a rumor going around stating that Apple slows down old iPhones so users are forced to buy the new ones. This article claims that Apple denied the rumor. It was actually confirmed by Apple that they do tend to slow down older iPhones and according to Forbes, Apple has apologized for intentionally slowing down iPhones to counter the effects of battery degradations in a memo to customers” Needless to say that Apple is working on the issue so that older iPhones won’t be so slow and the consumer can go on using their phone as normal without any issues.

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Pluto Reclassified From Dwarf Planet to Planet; April Fools Prank Gone Wrong; Rachel Wresh

In 2006 Pluto was declassified controversially from planet to dwarf planet, decreasing our solar system planet count to eight. However; in the year of 2017 reports began circulating on Twitter and Facebook that supposedly the International Astronomical Union(IAU) sent out a press release announcing that Pluto has been reclassified as a planet.

The parent article of these reports from Futurism.com was written as an Aprils Fools prank but was quickly taken out of context and spread throughout the web. The article began, “Today is a historic day- one that will bring joy to the hundreds of millions of Pluto lovers around the globe. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the body that is responsible for naming and classifying objects in the cosmos, has just announced that Pluto has been reclassified as a major planet” (Futurism.com). This goes to show how a mere prank can create loads of confusion and fake news across the internet.