The Real Problem with Fake News
In one of the largest study of stories, real and false, that spread, it was found that false news spreads faster and farther than real news.
Here is Sinan Aral, who was part of the original research team, talking about the results of this study and detailing why false news spreads more than real news.
It is found that as humans, we are more susceptible to spreading false news more than bots or algorithms. It is the novelty of the fake news that hooks us and makes is want to share.
It is clear in all of our minds that fake news is going to be a big social problem, one that we all need to come together to address. While some one will come up with ideas on how to categorise news as trustworthy or not, it still boils down to us, to not share information that we have not been able to verify for ourselves. This is going to be part of the learning that we as a species need to do as part of our evolution.
There are now software that are capable of producing videos of real people talking about stuff in a way that looks true but is completely made up. You can look at an example here.
Given the pace at which this technology is evolving, we need to consciously learn not to share any information without actually verifying of its authenticity in at least a few different sources.
Technology platform have played their part in the spread of fake or false news by promoting any and all posts that seem to build engagement and thereby helping spread fake news far and wide. They will need to adapt to this new reality by adding finding out ways to not allow this to happen.
Even while that happens, we can not delegate the responsibility of identifying, flagging and killing fake news to anyone else.
Our responsibility
Each one of us must take responsibility for:
1> Not share anything blindly without checking for the real source and verifying it elsewhere.
2> Once we identify something as fake or false news, flag it as such and stop the spread.
Potential Business Idea:
With the amount of information that we process today, I know that it will be extremely difficult for us to verify everything that comes to us. This is where there is potential for a business idea to create a tool or a platform which could verify a said news or information across different channel and give us information about how real or fake the information could be, beyond which we can use our human judgement.
In Conclusion:
I would only say that each one of us who spreads information online using our platform of choice is responsible for the spread of fake or false information, which will hurt us in the long-term. So, it is important that we realise the role we play in the spread and become responsible in what information or news we share with our friends and followers.
As followers and consumers of information, we need to be a bit more suspicious of all the information that we get. We need to follow the mantra
Fake Until Proven True
