How do I recognize fake news? Practical tips

Last April, an alleged saying was posted on German Facebook by Analena Berbock, the Greens and then-chancellor candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections: that pets should be banned because they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. In 2018, during the election campaign in Brazil, WhatsApp was flooded with messages in favor of the ethno-populist candidate Zaire Bolsonaro, but also with rumors that his left-wing opponent is preparing to establish a military dictatorship and legitimize the … child. During the pandemic, numerous videos and posts highlighting minority views within the scientific community.

A common denominator in all of this: it is Fake news, misinformation, information that is partially or completely wrong, but published with a specific intention, either to influence the political agenda, or simply to attract as many clicks as possible. Fake news is often spread with lightning speed. Many users find it difficult to distinguish them from the real news. DW experts give some tips to deal with the flood of information on social media. Let’s start today with the simplest form of fake news, texts or comments.

Caution is necessary

According to a survey published by the latest Digital News Report of the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, half of the respondents state that “in the last few days” they have read false or misleading information about the pandemic. More than 25% believe that they have read false information about the personal life of celebrities. These facts remind us that anyone who browses the internet, including applications such as messenger, should show a healthy skepticism and not take everything they read for granted, especially when it comes to an emotionally charged issue.

A typical example is Analena Berbock: the Greens’ candidacy for chancellor had never called for a ban on pets, and yet many internet users were quick to express their outrage at the alleged comment. This would probably not be the case if they followed the advice of Deutsche Welle journalist Ines Eizele, who specializes in detecting fake news. “Many people forward a video or other content without considering its content or origin,” says Ines Eizele. “It would be better to think for a moment: Does the information seem true? Do we know where it comes from? Who would be interested in spreading it? Are there any indications that it is not reliable? Spelling mistakes, for example “?

What is hidden behind the fake news?

Many times fake news reaches the user as messages through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. A look at the sender’s account can be extremely enlightening about his interests and beliefs. We can quickly discover that this is a social bot, ie a robot. A possible way of spreading is the messenger services, which had hosted fake news during the election campaign in Brazil in 2018. An investigation by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo showed that responsible for the misinformation were specific internet service providers ordered by large companies. The contact telephones referred, among other things, to the pre-election staff of the ethno-populists.

When receiving such content via messenger, it is a good idea to ask the sender where his information comes from. If you find that he has just moved them forward, without checking their content himself, this is certainly not a good omen. If the message also contains a link, you can see which source it is referring to. Of course, this does not mean that every message that contains a link is valid. After all, there are many websites that give more priority to content dramatization and clicks hunting, than to adhering to journalistic ethics.

A closer look reveals that this is a website behind which a government agency is hiding. Maybe it’s just a private blog or a satirical website. There are some details that are a sign of reduced credibility, such as the lack of sufficient information for webmasters, spelling mistakes, a large amount of advertising or even a rough layout, but this does not mean that the excellent layout is a guarantee of reliability. Take worldnewsdailyreport.com for example. At first glance it seems very careful, but we quickly find that most of its articles have at least unusual content: A ship disappears in the Bermuda Triangle to suddenly reappear in the Sahara, a barber is imprisoned for making voodoo dolls out of his clients’ hair. two brothers from New Jersey get married after a court marathon etc etc. We need to look more closely at the content to see if it is a satirical website. “World News Daily Report, where facts do not matter”, we read …

Is every claim valid?

But let’s look at the content on the substance, starting with a simple question: Does what we read seem logical and thorough? Can we imagine that being true? To be sure, we can in a first step search for relevant content on other websites. What has been published so far on the same subject? If, for example, a politician makes a groundbreaking statement, it will obviously have been published elsewhere. Official websites of government agencies also help us to check the reliability of certain claims. For example, on the issue of the pandemic, the announcements of the Robert Koch Epidemiological Institute are presumably based on better information than those published by individual scientists via YouTube.

If the news you are reading already contains a reference to a specific source (scientific research, official speech, program positions of a political party) it is a good idea to cross-reference this to confirm the content. Many times a statement can be truncated or isolated from its context, resulting in a different meaning or even falsification. Finally, you can turn to specialized websites, which control and cross-check the content of other sources of information. For the German-speaking world these websites are, among others, Correctiv, Hoaxsearch, but also Deutsche Welle.

Do not constantly forward

As a regular user, you too can do something to reduce the flood of fake news on the internet. It’s very simple: do not forward without a second thought to what you are reading. Many times fake news is not due to bad intention or naive belief, but it arises only because someone did not notice exactly what he read or failed to control it or was seduced by the feeling and impulse of the moment. And when fake news gets in the way, it is often too late to stop. Because, as Deutsche Welle journalist Ines Eisel says, “according to a recent MIT social media survey, fake news spreads six times faster than real news. “They are interesting because they address emotion and instinct, for example on issues like pandemics and immigration.”

DW / Fiber Eizele / Editor: Giannis Papadimitriou

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