Fake News

In both articles: “Lessons from The New York Times Super Tuesday hoax: Five ways to spot fake news” and “Bushfires, bots and arson claims: Australia flung in the global disinformation spotlight“, they describe how much fake news has been distributed around the world and how it has impacted nearby communities. Fake news also known as “hoaxes” aren’t always just on the web, some people have handed out fake versions of New York Times articles. Its very easy to be fooled online and these hoaxes can have serious impacts.

In the article: “Lessons from The New York Times Super Tuesday hoax: Five ways to spot fake news”, it says that, “Just a few weeks ago a pro-Palestinian group handed out fake versions of the New York Times to highlight what it believes is the Time’s bias against Palestinians. In 2008 the Yes Men distributed thousands of copies of a 14-page fake New York Times all over New York City. The paper declared the end of the Iraq war on the front page.” People are going as far as fake news articles to distribute fake news to the public. This article also gives five ways to help people make sure they don’t get duped by a fake website. It states: to check the URL, check the style, find out who shared it, and do a whols search.

Both of these articles address the importance of taking action against fake news and how careful you really have to be. I agree with it because there have been fake news about schools before. For example, some say schools closed due to viruses spreading, some say random crazy things supposedly coming from administrations to students and parents. Its really something that has to be stopped.