Linked – Fake news, propaganda spread quickly on social media

I would like all of you who participate in social media to read the following quote very carefully:

“According to Durfee, social media misinformation usually spreads due to a user’s status online. If users are trusted by a group of people, their posts are more likely to be accepted and shared as truth.”

When you share something to your friends/followers/fans, no matter where you got the original information from, it’s your reputation that is on the line. When you share “news” from obviously fake sites, or conspiracy theories with no factual basis, the rest of us judge you. It’s that simple.

And once that happens, either we quit following you, or we view everything else you say and share with skepticism, as we should.

You know how you don’t like that one news outlet because it seems so biased all the time, or gets the facts wrong sometimes?

What you share on social media makes you a news outlet too. What kind of news source are you for your friends? The kind that bothers to read and understand something before exposing other people to it? Or the kind who sees a headline that sounds like something shocking and spreading it around as soon as possible without checking any of the facts?

I know which one I’d rather follow.

And please, before you start blaming Facebook and Twitter, take a good look at who you follow and what you share.

Glass houses and all that….

https://universe.byu.edu/2018/12/26/fake-news-influence-spreads-quickly-on-social-media/

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