Fake news that you won’t miss

Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as its word of the year and defined it as the state of affairs when “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In the post-truth era, it is miserable to admit that people tend to support things that fit their ideologies rather than the truth

A BuzzFeed News analysis has identified the 50 fake news stories that attracted the most engagement on Facebook in 2016. Together they totaled 21.5 million likes, comments, and shares.

Here are the top five:

“Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The Pledge Of Allegiance In Schools Nationwide“

“Woman arrested for defecating on boss’ desk after winning the lottery“

“Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement“

“Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America“

“Cinnamon Roll Can Explodes Inside Man’s Butt During Shoplifting Incident“

Interestingly, the domain name for the top fake news story of the year is “abcnews.com.co.” It means that the slight modification of existing domains has become a dangerous and common tactic for fake news sites. They make the source look real and reputable at first glance. People easily fall into the trap and believe it.

And some more:

Fake news in 2016 are mostly related to the make-up stories of the two US president candidates. Let’s also take a look into “Pizzagate,” a story that led to a man firing a rifle in a Washington pizzeria.

 

Everything starts from a false allegation that Hillary and Bill Clinton used the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., as a front for a pedophile sex ring. The back room was supposedly used for kidnapping and trafficking children.

The photo shows a walk-in refrigerator supposedly in the restaurant, described as part of a network of underground facilities. However, a reporter later confirmed that there is no basement in Comet Ping Pong.

Pizzagate quickly spread to other social media sites including Twitter and Reddit. The story also was spread on Facebook and fake news sites, and even reached to foreign language sites as far away as Saudi Arabia. The restaurant owner James Alefantis and his staff received hundreds of death threats on social media. He also received a direct message telling him his pizzeria should be “burned to the ground.” Protesters also gathered outside the restaurant.

This case revealed how fake news could bring about serious and uncontrollable consequences with the ‘help’ of social media. Comet Ping Pong’s owner, James Alefantis said:

“What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences,”

“I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today and stop promoting these falsehoods right away.”

 

 

The Times also writes:

In the span of a few weeks, a false rumor that Hillary Clinton and her top aides were involved in various crimes snowballed into a wild conspiracy theory that they were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor. The fast evolution of the false theory revealed how a powerful mix of fake news and social media led an armed North Carolina man to investigate the rumors about the pizza place.

 

 

There are still many more examples of fake news out there. Misinformation and fake claims are always snowballing in an uncontrollable way. Spreading fake news could lead to undesirable consequences. And now, the real problem is how can we tackle it.