Social Media and Fake News

Though Social media has become almost an inevitable part of our society now, we can’t always depend on it. The spreading of misinformation in social media is not new. Every day we read bunches of things online on social media, which may happen to be true, often is not. This false or misinformation leads to fake news i.e. consisted of fabricated stories, without any verifiable facts, sources, or quotes. Those stories are forged to influence reader’s own opinions or to deceive them. The question of fake news refers to the point of how to think about the nature of real news. In the last few years, numbers of fake news stories have increased via social media platforms like What’s App, Facebook, YouTube, etc., because they are shared online faster than we can ever imagine. There have been varied uses of the term Fake news in different reporting of news. During the second half of 2016, the term was searched tremendously by people shown in a Google Trends Map.

Most of the time Fake news conflates three different notions: misinformation, disinformation, and mal -information. Misinformations are false information, but when a person conveys it, believes that it is true and shares. Disinformation is those which are shared intentionally by a person after knowing that it is true. On the other hand, information based on reality but imposes harm on a person, organization, or country is termed as mal -information. After putting all of them together, we call it fake news. This information disorder consists of different forms like satire, false connection, misrepresentation of facts, imposter content, manipulated content, fabricated content, and memes. There are mainly two reasons for sharing fake news on social media. Some people spread it for political, ideological, or business interests, some also spread it for fun. But they do it with an intention. However, again fake news is shared without knowing it’s fake by some people, but with a motive. The motive can be varied from person to person. Few of them think sharing the information before others gives them a sense of pride. While others think they must let people know about the importance of news and some commit it for fun.

Are we given enough contemplation before sharing information? Is it fake or real? Are we looking at an original piece of content? When and who created this content? Why is the content being shared? Why should we share it?

No, usually people never give a second thought before sharing content on social media. After receiving content like violent video clips, images, memes, etc. people forget to verify about fake or real. It happens because at that moment the only thing that triggers on people’s minds is to let the people know about the content and its consequences. There are very few different cases with some, who inquire ” is the content fake?”

However, here the problem lies with the human mind and the fake news. Our brains have a limited capability for processing information and for remembering, so the brain makes judgments on what to keep. Looking into that fact, the contents which are more familiar to people, or it has an impact on people due to some previous personal issues are especially shared in social media. Certainly, at that moment the brain can recall the previous effect of that content and without giving a second thought frequently passes the judgments.

 

Though there are different ways to prevent fake news in social media, sometimes they are not enough. Because there are no editors in social media to allow the spread of any content without verifying it. So, if an option like, ” Is the content real?” will appear before sharing content may be more helpful to people. But we social media users also have to play an important role. Instead of demanding the social media companies to take the necessary steps, we can be the editors ourselves by learning the research process of checking the truth behind the fake content. Personal responsibility is the first and fundamental step to protect our society from this fake content.