How to avoid spreading Fake News???
- Don’t trust any forward messages (especially political ones) that you receive, no matter who sends.
- Delete the message & move on – It’s the best you can do.
- Tell the person(s) not to forward such messages to you.
- If the message interests you, verify the message before believing it
- If there is no credible source online (credible news sites/News Papers/ fact check websites such as Alt News, Boom fact check), then the news is probably fake
- If there are credible sources and you trust them, then keep the message to yourselves. You’re not a Journalist to take the news to others. No one is going to give you a Pulitzer prize for forwarding/sharing messages.
- If you still want to have your 2 minutes fame, forward/share the message only to those who might be interested, but send the source links as well. If possible mention that you verified the news and you stand by the message (Beware : If you get the news wrong, people might stop believing you, unless they are your ilk, who do the same) A Journalist usually verifies a news from 2 or 3 different sources, before publishing it.
- If you want to avoid all these hassles and maintain your respect & trust, Read Step 2.
- Beware especially of the memes that carry a political message & short clip of someone’s speech. You will never know the context in which it was spoken and/or you will not know if video was edited to manipulate
- As a general rule, any forward that supports government claims or propagates government talking points would most likely be that – A Propaganda, nothing else. If you are happy with the government keep it with yourself.
agamthedal 