beating the hoaxers at their own game

@ajreid | firstdraftnews.com | @firstdraftnews | #ONA16

BEATING HOAXERS AT THEIR OWN GAME


BEATING THE HOAXERS AT THEIR OWN GAME


BEATING THE HOAXERS

Beating the hoaxers at their own game


WHY BOTHER DEBUNKING?

On average, it takes more than 12 hours for a false claim on social media to be debunked

The false claim travels farther and faster than the debunk

Source: Shao, Ciampaglia et al, University of Indiana – ‘Hoaxy: A Platform for Tracking Online Misinformation

Credit: Craig Silverman



“Our analysis shows that tweets reporting unverified rumours spark a sudden burst of retweets within the very first minutes, showing that users tend to share early,

unverified reports rather than later confirmations or debunks.”

They also found that tweets sent in support of an unverified claim tend to generate the most retweets. This also aligns with the other finding that a (potentially) true rumor

is more interesting than a false one.

Source: Zubiaga et al, Warwick University: ‘Analysing How People Orient to and Spread Rumoursin Social Media by Looking at Conversational Threads'




On average, it takes more than 12 hours for a false claim on social media to be debunked

The false claim travels farther and faster than the debunk




Trust in news is falling in many countries


SOURCES OF FAKES

• Official sources of

propaganda

Here’s what you need to look out for:



SOURCES OF FAKES


propaganda

• Hoaxers and marketers



SOURCES OF FAKES


propaganda


• Fake news websites



SOURCES OF FAKES


propaganda



• Unintentional

propagators like…



SOURCES OF FAKES


propaganda



• Unintentional

propagators like…

• Journalists, news

organisations, you, me

EVERYONE Credit: Craig Silverman


HOW TO SPOT A FAKE

• Find the original source.

• Check the About page.

• Run the domain through whois.icann.org

• Google every name, reverse image search all photos.

• Compare against other sources.

• Think about the motivation for sharing/creating it.



EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING

Strong, clear visuals

These images are both fake, but the

debunkers are unwittingly sharing

it further

Credit: Tom Trewinnard


EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING


• Don’t re-share the fake/false image without changing it

• Be clear

• Add context

• Make the dry, boring debunk as shareable as the salacious lie

• Use humour and creativity where appropriate


EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING



EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING

Use ‘nofollow’ links

<a href=”www.spam.com” rel=’nofollow’>Spam</a>

Or risk boosting the hoax’s SEO

Credit: Aviv Ovadya


EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING

Humour and creativity

Make people want to

share the debunk!


EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING



EFFECTIVE DEBUNKING


😕

firstdraftnews.com | @firstdraftnews | #ONA16

FIND MORE AT FIRSTDRAFTNEWS.COM

facebook.com/FirstDraftNews

@firstdraftnews

@firstdraftnews

medium.com/1st-draft

beating the hoaxers at their own game

News & Politics