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Digital Literacy: Detecting Fake News in a Post-Truth Era

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 Digital Literacy:
Detecting Fake News in a Post Truth Era

Carol A. Watson
Director, Alexander Campbell King Law Library
University of Georgia School of Law
Athens GA 30606
[email protected]
Introduction

Hardly a day passes without someone making a reference to fake news, but what
exactly is fake news? Why should lawyers care? What can and should we do about it?

Fake news is defined as deliberately false information spread via print, broadcast, or
online social media. Aside from reporting errors, in general, fake news does not come from
established news sources. It is written with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or
politically. It is factually incorrect and usually has sensational with headlines designed to grab
attention. The shocking headlines and emotion-invoking text are deliberately composed to
generate broad popular appeal and to encourage widespread sharing.

One of the problems with discussing fake news is that it appears in multiple forms. It is
authored for a variety of motives by an assortment of diverse individuals. To further complicate
the definition, the term fake news has been usurped and is sometimes improperly used by
individuals to disagree with or choose not to recognize the facts of a news story.

There are many ways to categorize fake news stories, but the four main types are:

1. 100% false stories – These stories are completely and intentionally false. They are
formulated to be disseminated widely and quickly.
2. Propaganda - Usually these stories have a partisan point of view that may include
some real facts that serve to draw readers in and mislead them to form false
conclusions. Propaganda often cherry picks facts in order to present a slanted point
of view.
3. Satire – Satire, such as The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, or The Onion is not
meant to be taken seriously. They are written as jokes but unfortunately they
sometimes get mistaken as serious or real.
4. Hoaxes – Pranks such as Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, or crop circles are
designed for humor, attention, or financial gains. It’s often difficult to know the
intention of a prankster, but trickery and mischief are among the defining
characteristics of a prank.

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 For purposes of our discussion, we’ll focus on the first category, entirely false stories.
Common characteristics of these types of stories include sensationalism and deliberate
deception. The stories are desired to stir emotions especially anger, surprise, and fear. Images
or photographs accompanying this type of news may also be manipulated or photo shopped.
Bona fide fake news is often designed to look like credible news stories. For example, instead
of abcnews.com, a fake news article might use the web address abcnews.com.co. A reader who
is scanning headlines quickly might not notice the subtle distinction.

Who Authors? Why?

You might wonder who authors these fake news stories and what is their motivation?
The two primary motivations are generally financial gain or political influence. Website creators
who convince visitors to “click thru” advertisements on the stories receive financial
remuneration based upon the number of clicks they can convince readers to follow. In
February 2017, Wired magazine published a profile story about a group of impoverished
teenagers in Macedonia who established an elaborate cottage industry creating fake news
articles and websites. They made substantial profits from their endeavors. In fact, the teens
discovered that the more sensational their headlines and content, the higher profits they were
able to reap.

The other motivation for authoring fake news is to influence public opinion. By now,
we’ve all read the stories about whether Russian hackers are creating fake stories to influence
voting in U.S. elections.

The History of Fake News

Finally, it’s important to realize that fake news is not a new concept. P.S. the term “fake
news” was not invented by President Trump. It has been in use for approximately 125 years
now. Merriam Webster has traced the first use of the term to around the late 1890s. Prior to

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the 1890s, the phenomenon was referred to as false news. There have been many instances of
fake news used successfully throughout history.

One of the first prominent examples of fake news that is often discussed by historians is the use
of mistruths in the Octavian and Marcus Antony rivalry. Octavian used fake news to successfully
destroy Antony’s political reputation. Instead of tweets, Octavian spread coins with derogatory
slogans about Antony portraying him as an alcoholic and a puppet of Cleopatra. Octavian even
brought a will of Antony’s to the Senate and read it aloud. He proclaimed that Antony wanted
to be buried in Egypt with the pharaohs. The fake will inflamed the passions of the senators
who were anti-Egyptian at the time. The Senate agreed that Marc Antony was a traitor and they
declared war on Cleopatra. Historians believe that this fake news campaign, coupled with
Antony’s loss in the battle of Actium, lead to his suicide.

One of the most significant enablers of fake news was the printing press. The invention
of the printing press in 1440 was a major turning point in the history of fake news. As soon as
the press was in wide use, pamphlets with falsehoods began appearing almost immediately.
This trend continued for hundreds of years. History is littered with examples of fake news such
as George Washington’s tale of chopping down the cherry tree. The penny press which
produced newspapers for a penny further contributed to the creation of sensational (and often
false) headlines in order to sell newspapers. Newspapers were big business. It’s no accident
that at the turn of the century, the tallest buildings in New York City and San Francisco were
owned by newspapers.

In the twentieth century, Adolph Ochs’ purchase of the New York Times was a significant
milestone in the development of journalistic ethics and standards. Although tabloids and
penny presses continued to churn out attention-grabbing false stories, the vast majority of
readers began seeking reliable, fact-based sources of news.

Fast forward to current times, the advent of social media created seriously new
challenges for ensuring the integrity of information. As stories could be published by anyone
and easily shared with a single click, fake news reached a fever pitch. The massive sea change
probably peaked with the scandalous “pizzagate” story. When a social media reader became

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convinced that Hillary Clinton was coordinating a child trafficking ring from a Washington D.C.
pizzeria and showed up intending to provoke an armed confrontation, the U.S. society woke up.
Readers, voters, and average citizens began asking, “How did this happen?” As reporters and
academics began to study the issue, it was discovered that the top 20 fake news stories about
the 2016 election received more engagement and were shared often than the top 20 stories
from reliable, established media.

So where are we now? The Information Age now has a new name, the Post Truth Era.
Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2016 was post truth. Post truth is defined as an
adjective…in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to
emotion and personal belief. Sharing unbiased information is no longer valued. Social media
users primarily prefer to share news that displays allegiance to a cultural community or political
ideology. As a result, it is critical to develop news literacy skills. Your digital literacy skills must
now be honed to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports,
whether they come via print, television or the Internet.

How to Detect Fake News

• Maintain a healthy skepticism. Always be on guard when you are reading information
from nontraditional sources, especially on social media. Remember the old adage, if it
sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
o Gauge your emotion. If you feel irate, incredulous, or gleeful about an article, a
red flag should go off in your brain.
o Be aware of your own confirmation biases.
• Evaluate the author. Who is the author? Do a quick search on the author. Is the author
a real person? What authority does the author have? Is the author an expert in the
topic?
o Is there a byline? Articles without bylines should raise your suspicion, especially
if you are on a website that lacks an About Us page. The About Us page is often
in the header or footer of the website.

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• Note the URL or web address. What is the web address of the online publisher? Do
you recognize the domain name?
o Be sure there are no extraneous characters in the web address. Don’t mistake
Bloomberg.ma for Bloomberg.com (a real example).
o What other types of articles have been posted at this web address?
o Look for the term wordpress in a publisher’s web address. Wordpress is a
popular tool for bloggers and can alert you that the items is more akin to a blog
post.
o Use the Whois domain name checker, https://whois.icann.org/en to identify
who owns a site.
• Check the supporting sources. Lack of evidence or named sources might indicate the
story is false. Does the author cite legitimate sources such as experts, academic articles,
or government reports?
o Does the article include links? Follow them. Fake stories often link to more fake
stories.
o Does the information cited actually support the propositions of the article?
• Verify the content. When in doubt, check reputable fact-checking sites such as
Snopes.com, PolitiFact, Washington Post Fact Checker, or Factcheck.org.
o Are other news outlets reporting similar stories?
• Seeing is not believing. You cannot always trust what you see. It is simple to take a
photo out of context or alter its content.
o You can conduct a reverse image search in Google, images.google.com or TinEye,
www.tineye.com, to locate other websites that include the image.
• Look for visual cues. Screaming headlines, all caps, multiple pop up ads, as well as
grammar or spelling errors are all signs that the website you are visiting may not be
credible.

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Why Does It Matter?

There are many reasons the prevention of the spread of fake news is important. Society
needs accurate information in order to make rational decisions, particularly about our
government and political processes. The spread of fake news erodes the public’s trust in trusted
traditional, reliable sources and furthers the deep partisan divide we are currently
experiencing.

More importantly, why does fake news matter to lawyers? Fake news on social media
stymied the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Now, businesses are wondering what they
should do if they are targeted. If you (or your client) are mentioned in a fake news story, it can
damage your credibility and business reputation. Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi found this out the hard
way when a misconstrued quote in a fake news stories riled up Trump supporters who
advocated boycotting Pepsi products.

What should lawyers do?

First, do no harm. Check all sources carefully. Think before you click and share news
articles, especially those that raise your suspicions. When in doubt, DON’T share.

Stay above the fray. Check your law firm website, social media accounts, and blog posts
to make sure they do not contain suspicious content. Always provide attribution to the sources
of your content. When possible, validate your assertions with links to reputable reports and
other sources. Your goal is for your firm to establish and maintain a reputation as a reliable and
credible source of information.

Monitor your firm’s online reputation. Set up Google alerts or use more sophisticated
monitoring software to track mentions of your name, your firm, and your clients. If you are the victim of
a fake news scam on Facebook, be sure to report it. Click the … (three dots) next to the post, you’ll have
an option to report the post as fake news.

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 Familiarize yourself with the ABA’s Legal Fact Checking service, LegalFactCheck.com -
https://abalegalfactcheck.com/ In August 2017, the ABA rolled out its new website to “use case and
statutory law and other legal precedents to help set the record straight by providing the real facts about
the law.” The aim of the site is to cover recent legal news and the law behind it. Examples of questions
that have been discussed include:

• On what grounds can a broadcast license be successfully challenged?

These are just a few of the questions related to issues that have been in recent news that require legal
analysis to answer.

Another tactic is to take the success of fake news to heart and use its appeal for good
rather than evil. For example, emotional appeal can be more influential than facts. Include
stories in your business’ website that appeal to emotions that your clients value such as trust,
public service, and honest. Emphasize the real-world impact of your work rather than providing
dry facts and statistics. Make an effort to create marketing material that clients might wish to
share such as pro bono or community service work that you are undertaking. Finally, be sure to
create powerful and engaging headlines for your marketing. Remember, most readers just
browse headlines for items of interest.

Suppose your client is the victim of fake news and asks if they can sue? Currently, there
are no easy solutions. The primary cause of action is a defamation suit, but since most targets
of fake news are public figures, the standards are high. “Actual malice” must be proven.
Although defamation liability also extends to anyone who republishes or shares the
information, as might be expected…the question is not can your client sue, but rather should
you client sue. Locating the source of a fake news article can be downright impossible.
Moreover, the likelihood that the defendant has any assets are even slimmer.

What should lawyers ultimately do? Unfortunately, legal actions will not prevent the
spread of fake news. The best remedy is to use your sleuthing skills and apply the tactics

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described above. When you identify fake news, point it out and back up your assertions. We
can only purge this scourge if we insist upon honesty and integrity in our news sources.