What should we do about fake news?

Commit to only getting your news from one or two reputable sources. Avoid everything else and if you happen to hear it or see it on social media, assume it is fake.

Keep doing exactly what you just did: do the further research instead of believing blindly. Encourage others to do the same. Facebook is not the place I would go to get the real story on anything. But just like the MSM, it is a starting place. You hear a story and ask: is that true? Does it make sense? Does it seem like something is missing? What is the other side of the story? 99.5% of the time, these days, “news” is only giving one side.

I don’t like blindly following anything; so, I do my own fact checking. I’ve been doing this since I bought my first computer & entered the world of an internet social life. When a friend or family member sends me a link that just doesn’t check out to be true, I reply to the email requesting that the sender fact check their links BEFORE forwarding them along & providing them with links that proves it is false. Those who care, WILL fact check what they are sharing; & those who don’t care will take you off their list of people to send these kind of links. It has greatly reduced the “junk emails” I receive & I’ve pretty much learned whose links I can trust!!!

I’ve stopped reposting anything I read on Facebook unless I can verify that it is from a reliable source. For most of my news, I rely on The New York Times and NPR.

I simply DON’T have a Fakebook account. The only news I get from FB is in the form of emails & since doing the rebuttals with the senders, I’ve pretty much stopped receiving those!!!

The key to resisting this kind of crap is right there in your statement “it sounded outrageous.” Gullibility is about ignorance. The first line of defense is a base of knowledge sufficient to recognize the ridiculous or absurd. And when the wildly improbable story does pop up, one should “consider the source”.

I think it’s incumbent on all of us to use our basic common sense when sorting out what’s real & what’s fake, pretty obvious in the vast majority of cases.

The fuck….
I’m with @seawulf575.
I know someone close to me who sometimes tells me the most ridiculous news, and is surprised when I tell them that that is obviously fabricated.
I advised to do some research every time they are flabbergasted by such need stories.
Check it on several reputable other news sources.
I get the feeling it works; I made Facebook a tainted source for news for them.
Which I think it is.

First of all, identify it as real fake news, not what some will tell you or try to make you believe is “fake” news.

You might consider different sources for your news. Then again, if facebook is your source for news you probably won’t do that.

As long as there is a demand for fake news there is nothing we can do about it, except keep our selves as truthfully informed as possible.

Facebook is where I hear a lot of stuff for the first time. Nothing wrong with using it as a starting point.

So much of the time the news isn’t so much fake as it is exaggerating. This BP meds scare, for example. It’s a real thing but they leave out some important facts.
I take exactly the dose that is involved in the recall. 100mg losartan pot. What they don’t tell you is the concern involves limited quantities of the drug, made by a specific company. One quick call to my pharmacist set my mind at ease.
People WANT to pass this stuff around before even checking it out.

Don’t get your news from social media?

Who are you talking to?

^^Don’t speak to me in that tone of voice young lady!

LOLL!!

sry.

WHO THE HELL YOU TALKIN’ TO ROJO???!!

Yes, quit sharing it or believing it.

The report I saw on the BP meds did give a LOT# which probably references the actual company but meant nothing to those of us who don’t have to take it!!!

Now, BOTH of you behave or BOTH of you will have to stand in the corner!!!

Odd as it may seem, I was just answering the original question.

And the lot number isn’t on the bottle @LadyMarissa.

@rojo I get in trouble here ALL the time for the same reason. OK, you may step away from the corner!!!

@Dutchess_III OK, I don’t take them so I didn’t know that. Since learning to “Just say NO”, I try to stay away from the legal as well as the illegal drugs!!!

Well, it is not splendid when your blood pressure crosses the 220 / 120 mark, and continues climbing.

Never had that problem either

It was a shock to me! I guess it’s hereditary. My dad had high BP, and I never knew it until very, very recently. I was disappointed that it wasn’t dropping after I quit smoking in March. It finally occurred to me to ask my late dad’s wife about it.
Mom didn’t have it, though.

Fake news isn’t news. I like Dr Trischa Goodnow’s description of it as “verbal deception” or VD for short. You can listen to her talk on the subject here. The talk begins around the 2:15 mark after troubles with the microphone. It is worth listening to.

Unless the issue is about defamation of character and the affected person willing to pursue the lawsuit path there’s not much to be done by common people as they’ll just ignore it and move on with their lives. For this fake news to really be gone effectively and for good the content would have to be related to government or government officials, in an offensive/sensitive/negative light.

I’m not talking about myself! Obviously, I do do research or question these outrageous statements and these pass around links.

I’m saying, how are we going to change the masses from immediately believing the garbage?

I want a shift in the culture. I want people to feel shame about wanting to hate people who simply disagree with them politically. I’m not talking about if they want to do something illegal like jail minorities or hurt people, I mean disagreements that diserve to be discussed. I want people to love thy neighbor, treat others as they want to be treated, to value integrity and being nice.

I feel like I live in two different worlds. My every day face to face life people are lovely to each other. They are giving, happy, and then I go online or watch the news and all hell breaks loose. God forbid you say something moderate or disagree with someone online and they might say, “my wall, if you don’t agree with me don’t post anything!” And, then they might unfriend you. Fine, that’s facebook, maybe it is their wall, but the attitude goes beyond Facebook.

We aren’t @JLeslie.

Yeah, sadly, “changing the masses” is too tall an order — particularly since much of those masses don’t want to be changed.