What you’re about to read is completely true, unlike many stories you see online. David Crookes exposes the facts behind fake news
What is ‘fake news’?
The term ‘fake news’ refers to stories that look real, but are deliberately false and misleading. Widely shared on social media, they entice people with their clickbait headlines and fool them with potentially damaging disinformation. By doing so, they have become one of the web’s most pressing problems, making it ever more difficult to distinguish between myth and reality.
What kind of stories are fabricated?
Politics is often the focus of fake news, especially in the US where Pope Francis apparently endorsed Donald Trump and Barack Obama was said to have banned the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. But crime stories are popular, too: did a woman really defecate on her boss’s desk after winning the lottery, and did a man actually die in a meth-lab explosion after setting his farts on fire? Unsurprisingly, the answer to both is no.
Where are these stories being published?
There are lots of fake news outlets and the numbers are growing. Fake News Watch (fakenewswatch.com) lists dozens of them, including Real News Right Now (www.realnewsrightnow.com) and National Report (nationalreport.net), but these are just the tip of the iceberg. Last month, Google reported taking action against 340 sites “that deceive people with their content”, which gives a good indication of the large numbers involved.
Surely these sites look obviously fake?
Actually, it’s the fact that they look like real news sources that draws many people in. World News Daily Report (worldnewsdailyreport.com), for example, adopts a layout similar to many news sites and carries articles that are virtually indistinguishable in style to those you’d find in newspapers. Some go further, though, and imitate legitimate sites. It’s easy to see how visitors to USAToday.com.co, MSNBC.co and Bloomberg.ma could be tricked. Indeed, the latter ran a story about Twitter being the subject of a $31bn takeover, which led to an 8% spike in the social-media giant’s stock price. The site has since closed.
Who is fooled by fake news?
That’s currently the focus of some highlevel investigations. MPs have launched a parliamentary inquiry to look at how people of different ages, genders and social backgrounds use and respond to fake news (bit.ly/culture417). The Culture, Media and Sport Committee will examine the impact of fake news on public understanding of the world and the point at which legitimate commentary becomes propaganda and lies. Following the proliferation of fake news during the US presidential elections, there is concern over its effect on the democratic process.
I only visit BBC News. Does that mean I’m immune?
Not necessarily. The reason why fake news sites are proliferating is due to social media. According to research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 28% of 18-24 year olds now rely on Facebook and Twitter as their main news source, while Pew Research says 62% of US adults get at least some of their news from social media. It means there’s an increasing likelihood of someone sharing fake news and you clicking it out of curiosity.
Isn’t a lot of this just entertainment?
Yes, some of it is. Spoof-news sites such as The Onion (www.theonion.com), NewsThump (newsthump.com) and The Daily Mash (thedailymash.co.uk) have been around for a while, providing satirical commentary on current affairs. But they don’t pretend to carry real news and it’s usually obvious that their stories are jokes (although some are still taken at face value and shared). Awareness of these sites is so high that the hashtag #NotTheOnion is often used on Twitter by people sharing a real story that beggars belief.
What do fake-news creators get out of it?
Motives vary, but aside from political persuasion, money is at the root of much fake news. Indeed, a lot of fake sites have been traced to the city of Veles in Macedonia where teenagers can reportedly earn thousands of euros a day making up stories for website owners (bit.ly/veles417). The sites then earn revenue through advertising and often promote big brands next to fake news, which gives them a veneer of legitimacy.
But why do companies run their ads on these sites?
They don’t do it deliberately – it’s down to the complexity of online advertising. Internet ad agencies take space on websites and then rotate the adverts that appear. The advertisers have no knowledge of or control over where their ads are displayed. MPs hope to cut the funding of fake-news sites by examining how advertising is bought, sold and placed online.
Why aren’t social networks clamping down?
They are. As well as removing the ability to spoof domains, Facebook is calling on its members and US fact checkers to report fake news stories, which it will flag up with an explanation as to why the story is being disputed. The company is also looking at ways to use members’ behaviour to identify fake news, and has suggested that stories that are read and then not shared may be a “sign that the story has misled people in some way”.
Facebook is also a member of the First Draft Partner Network (bit.ly/first417), along with the BBC, Twitter, The Guardian, YouTube, Channel 4 News, Sky News and many more. This is a coalition of platforms and publishers that looks at the best ways to verify content that’s been posted on social media.
What about Google?
Google has been punishing fake news sites by banning them from carrying Google ads on their pages. It has targeted around 200 websites so far, prohibiting adverts on sites that propagate “misrepresented content”. Google has also vowed to invest in better detection, fearing the fake-news writers will try to trick the system.
Could all this affect ‘real’ news?
Definitely. The mainstream media is worried that fake news causes general distrust and there is an added danger that a time-pressured journalist could find a hoax story on social media and report it as being true. But it’s not just the news itself that can be faked. Recently, a man called Greg Bryan falsely described himself as a multimedia sports journalist for The Star in Sheffield and tweeted transfer rumours and news about Sheffield United football club. The paper was forced to publicly deny that he was linked to the publication.
HOW CAN I SPOT A FAKE NEWS STORY?
Even if a news story appears outlandish, that’s not to say it’s not real. Here are four ways to check for fakery
1 Look at the source, the site’s URL and the presence of quotes. See if the story is verified elsewhere, on a well-known news outlet such as BBC News. If you can’t find any legitimate backup to a claim, it could be fictional.
2 Visit a fact-checking website such as Snopes (snopes.com), FullFact (fullfact.org) or FactCheck (factcheck.org). These reveal the truth behind a great number of urban legends, myths, rumours and fake stories.
3 Follow the BBC’s Reality Check service @BBCRealityCheck on Twitter. This was set up during the EU referendum and is dedicated to looking out for fabricated stories on Facebook, Instagram and other social media.
4 Install Slate’s Chrome extension This Is Fake, (www.thisisfake.org), which spots fake news on Facebook and lets you warn others. Also try BS Detector (bit.ly/bs417) and Official Media Bias Fact Check (bit.ly/bias417).