bw284116@ohio.edu
In a world where social media dominates a lot of people's thoughts, it is important to clear up what is true and what is not. People are always finding ways to throw something out on these certain social media pages in order to gain popularity and attention.
This is certainly true in the realm of politics. One of the most engaging times on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media site is in times of an election. For the most recent election, there was a ton of engagement from both sides. The biggest problem out of the engagement is the fact that there is false news from both sides. This is said to be a driving force in a lot of people's decisions on election day. According to an article by NPR, there are many factors that went into this election, but it is the fake news on social media that could have put different thoughts in one's mind. It is quite the thought to think that a simple, made-up post could be the reason of one's election choice.
Whether people are accepting fake news into their decision making, they are most certainly looking at it. According to an article on BuzzFeed, the most interacted links were ones of fake news on Facebook. This includes lies about Hillary Clinton selling guns to ISIS, her not having enough qualifications for the oval office, and others. This creates a sense of distrust if one is not fact-checking these articles. Therefore, would be a huge help for the Trump campaign if people actually believe these claims. Much like the NPR article, a Washington Post article sheds light that voters did fall into the trap of accepting these claims when they made their decision to vote. People like to click on the major headlines and the hot takes. Content like fake news gives them a new reason to be entertained. Especially in situations like the election or in case of tragedies, it is often someone with a quick wit that will gain notoriety. They are able to do so by playing off of an event that just happened. After the Sandy Hook incident, there were Twitter accounts made by other people acting like the victim's parents. This is guaranteed publicity because people want to know how the parents feel and will assume it is them speaking because they have no reason to not believe them.
A lot of the takes on social media are becoming more false every day. It is important that each social media site can weed out the truth from the lies. Twitter and Facebook continue to up the security on their terms of agreement with users to guarantee credibility. There have been multiple instances that posts will get taken down relatively quickly if a good amount of people are calling it out as fake. This is what is needed for victims of fake news. It is hard to speak out against it because the backlash from their comments could be worse than the fake news in general.
Entertainment is the engine that runs the internet. Fake News will most certainly continue to fuel that engine and will most likely be more popular than real news. This is why it is crucial that people are fact-checking everything and do not believe it just because it has more clicks than another story.
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