Here’s Why Fake News Thrives Online (And Here’s How to Spot ’Em!)

Digital platforms face a new kind of threat, that could eat into their revenues in the coming years.

Fake news is something that needs to be cured out of the system. (Photo: iStock)

Fake news has become a digital epidemic.

There have been allegations that the recent US Presidential election that saw Donald Trump’s victory was greatly manipulated by such stories on the internet.

Much closer to home, ‘fake news’ have abounded about the PM’s surgical strikes, as also the more recent subject of demonetisation.

What do you choose to believe? Which piece of news in the digital space is sacrosanct, and which one’s fake?

How to Spot a Fake

While it is virtually impossible to detect every single article of fake news, a little common sense and awareness will save you the embarrassment of sharing something on your timeline, that is too good/bad to be true.

Here are a few quick pointers:

• Avoid going to websites that end with:
• .Lo
• .Co.com
• Com.co
• Stories that have no author, or when several of them have the same author
• 
  
• Also, cross-check your stories via multiple sources: TV, newspaper, other stories on your Facebook list

Still in doubt? Here’s a quick video refresher:

Bot-ching it up

Facebook’s intention to evolve from a social networking site, to a news reading platform got its impetus via the ‘trending news’ segment – which shows up at the top right of your screen on the Facebook page.

But according to a recent Gizmodo report, a former Facebook worker claimed that the platform suppressed articles related to the Conservative Party in the United States. If this is true, it would mean that the machine algorithms in place aren’t as reliable as they were thought to be.

It is hard to decipher between real and fake news.

New icons on Facebook’s timeline are the result of complex and proprietary set of algorithms designed. While this lets you keep a tab on your friends and their latest vacation updates, it also, unfortunately creates a virtual eco-chamber of people who think and talk like you.

For eg, if you have read a fake news article on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, then the Newsfeed algorithm will likely suggest articles around it.

The problem gets further amplified by the fact that FB is a free-for-all online publishing platform. So far, Facebook has not really intervened to verify the content published on its platform – unless it is flagged off or reported by the community i.e. its users.

Hitting Their Revenues?

Digital revenues for Facebook and Google have picked up over the past year. Forbes reported that even though Mark Zuckerberg’s platform has minted over $5 billion this year, the fake news epidemic could, however, have a triggering effect on their existing business model.

The convenience of advertising and pushing content on users’ timelines, or paying for better page rank results on Google, has further catapulted the fake fever pandemonium.

Such instances have forced industry experts and even the companies to predict, that invariably, these ad space provisions could end up eating into the revenues in the coming years. After all, advertisers will be wary of associating with any platform that doesn’t reflect the truth.

(With inputs from NBC News)