Do not use popular social networking websites Facebook.com, Twitter.com and others for your news sources. If any news is posted on these social networking websites, please check with one of the popular news websites before tweeting and sharing with your friends.
It is so easy to spread propaganda on these social networking websites because all it takes is someone to share it with their friends, their friends share with their friends and so on. This can go on until the fake news reaches millions of online social networking users.
This fake news can lead to something tragic. Let us take a look at the scenario below:
Someone post that there has been a report of a shooting at a school on one of these popular social networking websites. This information is shared with a mother whose child attends that same school. The mother panics, jumps into her car and speeds off in the direction of the school.
Unfortunately, the mother crashes and dies before she could reach the school because the overwhelming news prevented her from focusing on the road. She was instead worrying about what may have happened to her child.
A few hours later, it was revealed that the information posted that the mother had read, was indeed not true.
This can happen to someone and that is why people who post fake or misleading information online should think of the consequences of their action.