Pass It On

HOW MISINFORMATION CAN SPREAD ACROSS SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CONSUMER TO FACT CHECK INFORMATION

The internet is a paradise for information. Anything you could ever want to know can be found through a quick Google search, and TikTok provides everything you didn’t know you needed to know in short, digestible, 60 second videos. Nowadays, the majority of adults use social media apps like TikTok and Instagram to source their news. According to a Pew Research Center study, more than 86% of adults said they get their news from their smartphone, and out of a survey of 108 WAHS students, 34.3% said they get news updates from TikTok. While this makes information easily accessible, it also makes the spread of misinformation all too easy, and without a simple way to control it, it leaves the responsibility to fact check information on the user. TikTok has endless videos that appeal to any kind of audience. There are entire categories dedicated to doctors of TikTok, scientists of TikTok, and people claiming to have authority in any field of study. While this can provide useful information about certain subjects in a way easily understandable and available, it also makes it easier for people to spread misinformation. It is all too easy for anyone with a little confidence and a lab coat to convince thousands to believe false information. It can be near impossible to tell who is a real doctor and who is not. And the spread doesn’t stop just there. Outside of TikTok, people may share this information with their friends, and them with their friends. This kind of widespread information can even become confirmation. By hearing it from multiple sources, it reinforces its validity. If everyone else has heard it, then it must be true. The issue arises with how to stop the spread of misinformation. Fact checking every video posted would take far too much time, and taking down videos has never been entirely successful. Short of taking down every video with the slightest suspicion, which has a variety of issues, there are bound to be things that slip through the cracks. Since we can’t police the content creators, it leaves the responsibility up to those who watch. When we are handed endless 0 information and entertainment, there is a certain responsibility we must take on. It falls to the viewer to fact check the information we are presented with. Tiktok can help by discouraging misinformation and taking down what videos they can, but there are

some things that we as consumers must do to stop the spread of misinformation. It’s good practice to fact check any information you come across on the internet. Ways to fact check include searching related information to see if whatever you OPINION OF THE WHIRLWIND EDITORIAL heard is corroborated by other sources. Check to see if the source is reliable; do they have any bias or what sources are they citing? Google Scholar is a great place to BOARD find scientific journals and articles related to the subject. There are numerous online resources that allow people to check information and educate themselves about the subject. FactCheck.org is one such source that provides clarification for commonly misunderstood topics and stories. PolitiFact is another which tells you which facts are actual facts and which are not. These are great resources to use when researching information, which is important to do before sharing information, whether inperson or online. It’s the ease of hitting repost that allows for misinformation to spread like wildfire. If you feel strongly enough about an issue to want to share, do your research first. Learn about the topic and understand what it is you’re talking about before you risk sharing false information. With great entertainment comes great responsibility, and it is ours, as consumers, to learn how to separate the truth from the lies. LOOK FOR BIAS

50 We asked 84 students how many hours they spent on 40 TikTok per day. Heres what they said. 30 20 10 0 0-1 2-3 4-5 6+ 35 We asked 108 30 students how reliable they thought TikTok 25 was and this is what 20 they said. 15 10 5 Not Reliable Somewhat Unreliable Somewhere in the Middle Somewhat Reliable Very Reliable

1) Who wrote it? Are they qualified to be talking about the subject? A lot of times people will form opinions about subjects they know little about and then share those opinions without specifying that they aren’t facts. Whenever you hear information, check who’s saying it and what their credentials are.

LOOK FOR BIAS

2) Does the information lean in one direction or the other? If an article or video seems to favor one point of view then it’s probably biased. It’s good to read multiple sources and multiple different viewpoints in order to get an objective view. Also ask if the writer has anything to gain from sharing a certain perspective.

How To Fact Check Information

Which Headline is the Real Headline?

USE FACT CHECKING WEBSITES

3) There are a multitude of fact checking websites like Politifact and FactCheck. org which provide easy to read analysis of commonly misunderstood facts. If there’s anything that you are unsure about or have more questions about, websites like these can be a really easy way to find out whether the information is true or not.

LOOK FOR OTHER RELATED SOURCES

3) Always check multiple sources. Find other articles that are talking about the same topic and see what they have to say about it. Looking at other sources can help you understand the full picture and see both sides of the story.

WHEN WAS IT PUBLISHED

5) Check when the information was published. The information could be outdated and new research or information about the subject could have come out.

ELON MUSK IS A TYPICAL TWITTER USER, EXCEPT FOR ONE THING