How to spot fake news on WhatsApp or other places

It is 2018, and we are quite dependent on the internet. That makes sense, as the Internet offers us almost everything from ordering our food to getting world news. What else will people want! And when it comes to news, the internet also has a bad name for being a medium to deliver the fake news. Fake news is something which nobody wants, and it is the dark part of the surface web. Fake news includes almost everything from a free laptop by Jio to those, which target a certain community of people, which has the potential to trigger a riot. Whatever may it be, fake news is not at all acceptable in the world of internet when the implementation of AI is the next step.

The people who create those fake news do that with some kind of intention. It can be to collect your private data, fulfill some awful personal requirements or something else, which is not good for the people of our country or the complete mankind. There are numerous stupid netizens, who believe in it and take relevant actions, which in most cases are stupid, as well, or can also be illegal. WhatsApp and Facebook are most criticized for being a medium to transmit fake news. The reason for that is quite simple. WhatsApp and Facebook have the highest user base. In the recent days, WhatsApp has taken some steps to stop fake news. But is that enough!

find out fake news, on WhatsApp, Facebook, or any other social networking websites.

All Facebook, WhatsApp can compare the news with some fake news samples or use AI to find them out, and make the users aware of it. But you yourself are more intelligent and thus you should take some steps to ensure a news is not fake before you share the same.

Some ways to find out fake news, on WhatsApp, Facebook, or any other social networking websites.

Closely look at the titles

The title is the first thing, which attracts you to read the complete article. Fake news in most cases come with a catchy title or weird punctuations. Though news with catchy titles might not be fake every time, it will be, in most cases. If not that titles for fake news might come with multiple ‘|||’ or so. The fake news might even come with improper capitalization, like ‘SHOCKING |’, ‘WARNING |’ etc. which shouldn’t be the case with news from some well-known and reputed sources.

Read the content carefully

Not everybody is good at English. Especially those guys, who don’t have anything to do and make the fake news. News from some reputed sources should come with some good quotes, and if not that, it should be free from grammar issues and spelling mistakes. Fake news, on the other hand, comes with stupid grammar mistakes, and spelling errors, which a high school student can even understand. Fake news is written in a hurry, and are not cross-checked properly, making it easily recognizable.

Cross-check the pictures properly

We all want some kind of news with media content like photos and videos. The fake newsmakers as well add photos and videos to the content in order to authenticate it. But the photos and media contents in the fake news are mostly edited or are collected from incidents, which were taken long back. Thus cross-check the images before you believe it to be true. Even the reputed news sources will blur some sensitive content of a photo and video in case they are obnoxious, which will not be done mostly in case of fake news. The reason is to make you react more violently to the content.

Cross-check from other sources

If some news is too difficult to believe, do not get happy or angry over it instantly. The reputed news agencies are always keeping us updated with the fastest possible news. Thus, have a look at the most popular and trusted agencies before you take your decision of forwarding it to your near and dear ones. You can also have a look at a few of the most popular fact-checking websites to ensure, what you have got is not fake. Some real news can also be viral. But before you consider a viral news to be true, check the other news sources properly. If a piece of news is making you too happy or too angry all of a sudden, chances are high, it is fake.

Look at the URL properly

Having a look at the URL of a news is very important. When you get a news, which is too hard to believe, have a look at the domain of the URL. If the news is not coming from a reputed news source, try to know a little about the background of the news agency. You can look up the owner of the domain, and when it was created by visiting the Whois domain lookup website. If the domain was purchased not too long ago, chances are there, the domain was purchased with the intention of spreading the fake news in mind.

Is it asking for personal information

The fakest news are made with the sole intention of getting private information from you. As I said in the introduction. From time to time, you might get messages about getting a free laptop from Jio, or MacBook from Amazon, after a spin. After that, you will be asked to forward the link to 10 groups or so after you register for the offer with your phone number and email ID. Such news is completely fake, and you should stay away from such shit. WhatsApp might introduce a way to filter such kind of messages, but your intelligence should be the best filter, lest the AI can’t deliver its job quite well.

So those were the ways you can easily recognize fake news, whenever it is forwarded to you. Getting a fake news is not your fault. But it will be your fault if you do not check it properly and forward it blindly. You are the only one responsible for whatever you are sending or forwarding. WhatsApp is doing its own job of using artificial intelligence to spot fake news and making you aware of forwarded messages. More features are likely to come in the next few days to combat the awful situation of fake news.

Just in case you get a fake news, delete it, or keep it on your phone. Forwarding fake news is a stupid idea. It is also a good idea to send a polite message to the sender of the message, requesting him to not forward it more, in case the news is fake. If you are getting the same on Facebook or so, where you can report some content, do that. Facebook or other similar websites will surely take the appropriate measures to stop it from being forwarded.

Hope the information on how to recognize fake news was helpful for you. Have more ways to spot fake news? Please comment it down below.

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