Snopes has a useful article:
Red Flags: How to Identify Suspicious Rumors
Key points are:
• Dubious or Unclear Sources: If a claim originated from a tweet, or Facebook post, or any other social media outlet without any actual news site reporting on it, then it should be double-checked by a journalist or news outlet. Most internationally renowned news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and many others can be considered reliable.
• Spelling and Punctuation Errors: Because they are churned out in large numbers and fairly quickly alongside breaking news stories in order to get clicks and shares, this is a big reason to treat them with suspicion.
• Satire Masquerading as 'News': A quote, an event, or key facts are misrepresented to deliberately reflect the political leanings of a website. Right-wing commentators are among the first to spread such claims.
• Beware of Second-Hand Claims: If someone reports hearing a rumor from a "friend" or a "friend of a friend," always be wary. If you read a social media post that claims to know the original source, but isn't the source, then take it with a grain of salt.
• Videos That Lack Context and/or Are Edited: Videos shared online can be accompanied by chatter that purports to explain what is going on in the video, but sometimes that language removes context, or the video itself has undergone undisclosed editing. Check if the video is being posted by verified news outlets, and watch for abrupt cuts or awkward transitions in the video.
• False News Website URLs: Sites like Abcnews.com.com that used a similar logo and URL to the real abcnews.go.com. Most sites use ".com" or ".org," but not all of them are legitimate news sites.
• Dramatic 'Clickbait' Headlines: Most headlines are intended to grab your attention and get you to click on them, thereby increasing ad-supported pageviews. As a result, they often use outlandish language with big claims that require readers to read the whole article to get the full picture.
29 Mar 2022, 6:56 am
