I’m very lucky to have studied fake news as part of my Journalism degree, makes it easier to spot.

This is likely fake news, from how the post is phrased to the discolouration and change in texture around certain information.

Let’s talk about fake news and how it spreads https://twitter.com/whufc_uk/status/1293338372526809090

I’d like to take this opportunity to educate you all on fake news, because it can get even the best of us - hell, journalists fall for it more than we want to admit!

1. WHAT? What is Fake News?

Fake News is false information hiding under the guise of news. Sometimes this passes off as satire, other times it has a motive of spreading propaganda to target a certain audience, usually (what I call) “hate-baiting.”

2. WHY? Why do people spread Fake News?

Hell knows! For clout, for boredom, out of pure spite. Fake News aims to spread misinformation to push an ideology, it’s usually from political extremists who want to create division.

3. HOW? How does it work?

Fake News works on an emotional basis, preying on pre-existing divisions and predjudices and making them bigger. It picks on issues that will cause an “outrage reaction”, something people WILL have an opinion on.

+ we live in age of opinions, everyone has a platform to share their mind so fake news is preying on that - the more you share it the more people see it, believe it, and it actually becomes real.

4. Is it dangerous? Absolutely.

Another prime example is Clovergender. This was a fake news bait to attack the LGBTQ+ community and IS STILL being brought up to this day, people are still being fooled, causing predjudice against queer people.

+ for context: in the early internet days trolls decided to create a fake rumour that pedophiles wanted to join the LGBTQ+ community.

By using language used by the LGBTQ+ community “identify” “it isn’t a choice” they gave it some legitamacey - that’s how fake news works.

To this day people still believe this, it takes away legitimacy to the LGBTQ+ community and invokes hatred from those who already had a prejudice against them.

But it also gave it a legitimate existence. Because Fake News makes things seem real, people made it real.

There are actually people who identify with this falsified identity because they’ve seen it spoken about enough, reported enough and given platforms in real news that it’s become real.

When you share, push and talk about this stuff it brings it into existence.

5. How do you spot fake news?

It’s not always easy to spot but there’s tell tale factors. It’s still unclear whether the original post is true or not but regardless, the account has been suspended so... it’s more than likely, we can only assume.

+ to draw this conclusion I looked at

- the language of the post: does it sound familiar to all these generic posts? Could anyone copypasta it?
- sources: I WANNA SCREAM THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!! Is this a legitimate source? Does the evidence look real? +

+ are their any signs of photoshop, could this information be doctored in anyway?

It’s hard to tell but best advice, think about what the post invokes and be skeptical. Never believe what you read from one person or one source.

Here’s an example for you.

A Facebook post that always makes the rounds vs actually real news.

One is just something someone has said, the other has pictures and evidence of it being real.

Anyway hope you enjoyed! I throughly enjoy this stuff and it’s been fun geeking out with ya’ll!