Recognizing fake news on the internet

Reporters sometimes make a mess. In journalism there is even a word for it: a canard. The term defines a message that, after publication, turns out to be false. But that is not the same as the phenomenon of fake news that has received so much attention in recent times. Journalistic mistakes are the result of human error. There is no intentional lying or fantasy. The purpose of serious news is to inform the reader. In the case of fake news, this is not the case. In doing so, false messages are deliberately brought into the world.

Why is fake news on the internet really booming?

• Money
  By ensuring that many people click through on the fake messages, a lot of traffic is drawn to a website. And those sites are filled with advertisements. The more traffic, the higher the revenue. That turns out to be so lucrative that a fake news industry has emerged. In doing so, they try to make hugely exaggerated headlines that entice people to click on them. For example, ‘Headless Man Found At Utrecht Central Station.’
• influence
  You can influence people’s opinions with fake news. This happened on a large scale, for example, in the 2016 US presidential election. Russia spread a mountain of false reports intended to disrupt the elections. The many distributors of this fake news variant are called ‘trolls’. One of the false reports circulating on the internet claimed that Hillary Clinton was part of a pedophile network run out of the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington. Unbelievable? Of course. Yet there are people who believe it. For example, in December 2016 (after the election), a heavily armed man broke into a pizzeria in the American capital. He demanded to see the basement, convinced he had found the center of the pedo network. Incidentally, the affected eatery did not even have a cellar.
• Humour
  Satirical website De Speld produces messages that are surprisingly similar to real news. The purpose of these messages is innocent: to make people laugh. Sometimes someone makes the mistake of taking such a funny message as true, but they don’t do more damage than that.

After his appointment as president, Trump launched an attack on the mainstream media that wrote critical of him. He did this by consistently calling their posts ‘fake news’. Media such as NOS, RTL Nieuws, Nu.nl, de Volkskrant and AD do not spread nonsense. They always check messages with different sources to get them confirmed. You may not always agree with their view of things, but that’s another story.

Fake news is everywhere. Channels like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube are favorites of the creators of this kind of news. Be vigilant in these places.

Don’t be fooled. What good is it to read pages of nonsense? The tips below will help you distinguish the real from the fake.

• Where is the message?
  First, check where the message was published. You are undoubtedly familiar with De Telegraaf, AD, de Volkskrant, Metro and Nu.nl. If the news is on a site you’ve never heard of, read on carefully.
• Look closely at the headline
  Fake news headlines are often overly sensational and capitalized. They excite the reader, who immediately wants to click through to read what the headline promises. For example: ‘Car suddenly stops on the highway. What Happens Next Is Unbelievable!’ In English such a headline is called clickbait. ‘Bait’ is English for ‘bait’.
• Read more than just the headline
  Most fake messages tell the biggest nonsense. Reading helps. If a message takes a special turn or becomes increasingly improbable, there is a good chance that it is fake news.
• Look for sources
  One source is not a source. If there is a fake message, then usually no further information can be found via Google.

Finally, the Hoaxwijzer offers an overview of sites that are known for their fake news. At first sight, some pages have innocent names such as ‘Blik Op NOSjournaal’ or ‘Coffee break’. But they are full of nonsense. It is better to ignore those sites. The overview can be found here: the Hoaxwijzer – Fake news sites.