10 Tips to Spot Fake News on Internet
These days you are always countered with fake news because most of the time you are in touch with social media and the internet. As you know there is a huge growth of internet users especially mobile internet users, India tops the world rank in 2017 and every time your WhatsApp will alert you for some message, your Facebook app will alert you for some update. So, it is so widely shared on social media that it becomes very difficult to differentiate which news is real and which news is fake. This becomes harder as the experts use various editing tools to make it look more than real.
But do not worry. Now it’s possible to spot fake news. As the whole world is worried about to limit the spread of such mischief, check out a few ways to identify yourself with the following ten tips, whether a story is genuine or false so that you can act upon that news whether to share it further or just cut it short then and there itself.
TEN IMPORTANT TIPS TO FIND OUT IF A NEWS IS GENUINE OR FAKE
TIP 1 – BE SCEPTICAL OF HEADLINES
Most of the time fake news stories have eye catchy headlines in all caps with exclamation marks so that the reader’s eye goes there inadvertently without even looking for it. This is one of the popular tricks to attract the reader even if he is not interested in such news. If shocking claims in the headline sound unbelievable, they probably are. How to spot fake news
TIP 2 – LOOK CLOSELY AT URL
Sometimes you type a URL on the address bar and with a slight mistake in it, it will take you to s site which may look-alike. There are many news sites which pretend to be a branch or try to a look-alike of some popular news site. A phony or look-alike URL may be a warning sign of false news. Many false news sites mimic authentic news sources by making small changes to the URL. You can go to the site and compare the URL to established sources. You can find a complete list of such sites here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites at Wikipedia.how to spot fake news
TIP 3 – INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE
When you read news online always try to ensure that the story is written by a source that you trust with a reputation for accuracy. If the story comes from an unfamiliar organization, check their “About” section to learn more. If the news is genuine, you will always find some basic info on it, i.e. the place name wherefrom the news comes, the date of the incident, the reporter name, if images are tagged, then the image source, etc. These are some of the info you should care about while reading news.
TIP 4 – WATCH FOR UNUSUAL FORMATTING
You will find many misspellings, grammatical errors or awkward layouts in the fake news sites. The key reason is they use to rewrite the news to make it unique with some online or offline tools which adds some letters or phrases to it to make it unique. These publishers do not have time to read all these and correct it so they just randomly publish in-spite of taking the burden to correct it. If you look at the professional news sites, the article is written, edited and proofread before published in public forums. Read carefully if you see these signs and be sure that that is a case of fake news.
TIP 5 – CONSIDER THE IMAGES AND VIDEOS
There are more possibilities that fake news stories may often contain manipulated images or videos to make it viral or attract more readers as this is a trend these days. Sometimes the photo may be authentic but taken out of context. You can search for the photo or video to verify where it came from. Google is so clever these days, it will take you the right place where these resources came from originally with a little effort and few clicks of mouse.
TIP 6 – INSPECT THE DATES
Chances are there that, the news which is fake may have been published later the original ones have been published or the news itself is not real news so the dates and time have been altered. False news stories may contain timelines that make no sense or event dates that have been altered.
TIP 7 – CHECK THE EVIDENCE
Check the author’s source to confirm that they are accurate. Lack of evidence or reliance on unnamed experts may indicate a false news story.
TIP 8 – LOOK AT OTHER REPORTS
If no other news source is reporting the same story, it may indicate that the story is false. if the story is reported by multiple sources you trust, it’s more likely to be true.
TIP 9 – IS THE STORY A JOKE?
Sometimes false news stories can be hard to distinguish from humour or satire. Check whether the source is known or parody and whether the story’s details and tone suggest it may be just for fun.
TIP 10 – SOME STORIES ARE INTENTIONALLY FAKE
Think critically about the stories you read, and only share the news that you know to be credible. You are equally responsible as the writer while sharing the news. Always care what you share. Share only when you are sure that, the news you are sharing with others is the real one.