Fact Checking Social Media
I enjoy social media, especially Facebook.
Lately, I have found so many false statements usually written up in meme form, those are those photos with words attached within the photo.
Many friends I consider intelligent, just post without fact checking. At times I will tell them it's not true and they should fact check before posting? Some say they aren't journalists, so it doesn't matter. I say it matters since many times the post will lead to a website that has computer malware infections.
Here are a few most recent memes I fact checked and found to not be true."
"Consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not ... a Congress! I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington!"
http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2012/jan/02/chain-email/chain-e-mail-claims-when-baboons-congregate-its-ca/
Snopes declared false along with many other fact checking groups such as Politifact, a group that makes a living at fact checking political propaganda.
Merriam-Webster.com also produced negative results. So did the online version of the Oxford Dictionary.
It's easy to fact check, check go to Google and type,"fact check," whatever your question is?
There was a meme stating Barach and Michelle Obama surrendered their law licenses to avoid ethics charges.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/lawlicenses.asp |
It was also rumored a few months back that Costco would start selling recreation Marijuana in Washington and Colorado, there were hundreds of memes floating around social media, this too was false, but people still like to hit the share button before fact checking.
http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/costcopot.asp
Many times there are offers of extremely cheap airfares if you share a meme, offers of free cars to share a meme. If it sounds to good to be true, fact check before sharing or clicking onto a website that may infect your computer.
Both major political parties make up falsehoods, |
The worst memes are the political memes, the Democrats, make up lies about Republicans and the Republicans make up lies about the Democrats.
Thousands posted this non truth, If you fact checked you find the truth! |
Be careful what you share, spreading false information on Facebook is a federal crime and can get you up to 10 years in jail! Not really, just showing how easy it is to spread false info.
Watch what you share on social media, and please remember to fact check before spreading falsehoods that may ruin your reputation as a social media junkie.
Should you decide to share before fact checking that's OK too!