Information can be considered one of the most important assets because it provides knowledge on various matters. People obtain data from different sources, such as other individuals, books, magazines, or the Internet. Nonetheless, not all information or ways of acquiring it present reliable facts. For instance, news that is spread among the public may misguide people for several reasons, whether the report is based on inaccurate data, the source being deceitful, or the text being a marketing approach. Many researchers have extensively investigated the issue of false news with a focus on social media. The development of social media platforms has influenced how individuals communicate but also affected how society shares, receives and perceives information. For example, Di Domenico et al. propose that while distributing incorrect data is not a unique phenomenon, the spread of fake reports has dramatically increased on social media since the US presidential elections of 2016 (329). Accordingly, expanded disinformation raises the question of how false news affects modern civilization. Social media have simplified the allocation of fake news, negatively impacting people and organizations and creating undesirable attitudes by promoting such demeanors as confirmation bias.
The spread of FN (Fake News) has become a considerable issue due to the growth of SM (Social Media). De Souza et al. state that such SM platforms as Twitter and Facebook have changed the way information is published, distributed, and consumed (1). In particular, SM allows allocating knowledge to a large audience in a short time (De Souza et al. 1). Consequently, people are constantly exposed to diverse data, which is generated and shared online in enormous volumes, thus prohibiting traditional fact-checking by experts (De Souza et al. 1). Therefore, SM facilitate the distribution of FN represented by intentionally inaccurate texts disseminated as true reports (De Souza et al. 1). Accordingly, SM are utilized by numerous individuals who continuously and effortlessly share various information, which often cannot be completely verified. As a result, the more people spend time on SM, the more FN is allocated among the users who do not know that certain news is incorrect. Hence, SM has made it easy for FN to travel and mislead from one individual to another.
Furthermore, preventing the spread of FN is challenging because of the complexity of SM. De Souza et al. suggest that governments and different agencies support research on misinformation in SM (16). For instance, distinct linguistic approaches can ascertain the reliability of a text by identifying specific vocabulary utilized in FN (De Souza et al. 10). However, research groups do not interact enough to generate practical outcomes and do not investigate SM that are becoming more popular nowadays, such as Instagram or WhatsApp (De Souza et al. 16). For example, WhatsApp is based on a web of invisible networks and employs end-to-end encryption, making it difficult to detect misinformation (De Souza et al. 16). Moreover, FN is distributed not simply as texts but also as images and videos shared through in- and out-links (De Souza et al. 16). Consequently, SM persist to evolve, producing new platforms with diverse ways of allocating information. At the same time, researchers who do not collaborate with each other and concentrate on older versions of SM cannot generate practical methods of identifying and preventing FN. Therefore, the ongoing development of SM simplifies the dissemination of FN.
Works Cited
De Souza, João Victor, et al. “A Systematic Mapping on Automatic Classification of Fake News in Social Media.” Social Network Analysis and Mining, vol. 10, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-21.
Di Domenico, Giandomenico, et al. “Fake News, Social Media and Marketing: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Business Research, vol, 124, 2021, pp. 329-341.