Tips to vetting and varifying fake Social Media Posts

Social Media can be a great and wonderful way to get information out to Friends and Family quickly, unfortunately it also is a place with plenty of false and misleading messages. Messages that have been posted with the intent of getting a message across, that is if they are posted with good intent. 

The problem with a lot of these messages is that many are shared with inaccurate information, and some are even flat out lies being released into the wild in order tug on heart strings, and in the process evoke a response based off of either fear or a sense of social responsibility  that leads to them being shared.

Today I thought it might be helpful to write up a post with some tips on ways one can validate posts before sharing.

1. CHECK THE SOURCE

Every post out there has a source and be it that story on the negative aspects of a product, or that click bate style headline that reads something along the lines of 

“this mother poured milk into a sock, why she did it will amaze you” 

One thing will be in common, it will have a source. 

So, how does one check the source? Well the odds are if the post is on one of your Social Media sites, they have a page or profile that you can track back to.  Heading back to the origin page will allow you to get some insight into who is posting and as such will allow you to ask questions like

“Why does this page want to post this?”

“Is the history of their posts consistent?”

“What do they benefit from the topic of the post?”

2. SEARCH THE TITLE

Every modern Web Browser has the ability to use the mouse, trackpad or finger in order to highlight text. Use this feature to your advantage and run the title or topic of a post through Google or Bing.  Searching titles or topics will let you find any news articles or blog posts that support or debunk the topic.  Failing to have an actual topic can bring us to  the next point

3. SNOPES, HOAX-SLAYER AND THAT’S NONSENSE

If one can’t find a specific title for a post, the next best thing is to scan a post for any of the following

1. A date

2. A company

3. A City

4. A Celebrity 

basically any person place or thing which you can then place in the search window at Snopes.com hoax-slayer.com or thatsnonsense.com, all sites which do a wonderful job of curating details on social media hoaxes

and 

4. REVERSE SEARCH THE PHOTO

If you happen to be using Google’s Chrome browser this is as easy as right clicking on a image and selecting search Google for this image. However if you are looking for an even deeper search, as in the case of those Bill Gates “Share and get Money” images, you can either install a plug in called Tin Eye or go to Tineye.com and point it’s search to the address of the image.

Using Tin Eye’s search will not only tell you where else the photo is, but allow you to sort results by biggest change, oldest posting and other features.

Of course, the most important thing when you come across a story that has been proven as fake is to let others know. Never hesitate to share a short note with links that support it being such.

While some may get mad at you because they feel stupid for it being pointed out that they shared a fake story, the majority of users in My experience, is that most are glad you did.