Over the past few years, the amount of “fake news" spread through social media applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook has increased. Since April 2018 more than 20 people have been killed in India alone by angry mobs fuelled by fake news delivered through WhatsApp.
This doesn’t only happen in India; a recent study found that during the 2016 US presidential elections, fake articles and messages were shared by people in the US through various social media platforms.
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Who is spreading fake news?
Interestingly, the study found age to be a factor. The older people were, the more likely they were to share articles and fake images, messages from bogus websites on various social media platforms compared to younger generations.
According to the users over 65, on average, shared nearly seven times as many articles from fake news websites than the youngest group.
Indian cyber expert Himanshu Kikani told SBS Gujarati the findings are not surprising at all.
"The Internet is a quite new technology for senior citizens and they see every member in their households using the internet as well as social media applications. So, this generation also wants to play their part by communicating with other family members and friends through the platforms and they do so.
An old woman is using Facebook on her phone. Source: AAP Image/Frank May
"But the main problem arises when they click on a forward button without verifying the truth behind that message," he added.
Digital literacy for all
"It is not only about the age group over 50 years who are digitally illiterate. Even youngsters and well-qualified professionals are spreading misinformation through WhatsApp and Facebook without knowing its adverse effects.
“People need to be careful before forwarding anything to other users,” said Mr Kikani.
A Logo of WhatsApp is seen on a phone. WhatsApp said it would take steps to contain fake news and misuse of its platform. Source: Getty
How to determine if a message is true or a hoax
Real information and news are gradually getting buried as the amount of fake and false news increases. All messages received on social media are not 100 per cent true. So how to know the truth behind any message received through social media application?
Mr Kikani has some easy tricks to help the user to check the reality of the message:
- Use your common sense when receiving any message through WhatsApp
- Check the label on the top of the message, it will give you an idea whether it is an original message or if the sender has just forwarded to you
- Click on the link of the message to know more about the source of information
- Check the layout, content, graphics and grammatical errors of the source website
- Check whether the sender's account is verified or not
- Check the reality of received message by copying and pasting it on a search engine
- Overlook the messages that make you angry or fuel negative emotions
WhatsApp deleting accounts to stop fake news
Ahead of a general election in India, WhatsApp has started taking some action to stop hoax and fake messages being spread through their platform. In a recent development, the social media company said, “The company is deleting 2 million accounts per month as a result of "abnormal WhatsApp behaviour" detected on the platform.”
