Fake news traps flooded social media

With the development of technology and Social Network, anyone with an Internet-connected phone can get up-to-the-minute updates on events happening around the world. Posts on social networks mix all kinds of information: real, fake, misleading context, even intentionally distorting the message conveyed. The number of these posts is also too large for the management’s ability to process or check information.

Today’s clearest example of traps hearsay information surrounding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Only on the video sharing application TikTok, from February 24 to March 31, the number of videos containing the #Ukraine tag exceeded 34.2 billion views, far exceeding other platforms. Along with that is a lot of false information, fake news.

Since the first week of March, TikTok has stopped video posting and live streaming in Russia due to a new fake news law in this country.

In the last week of March alone, the number of videos containing the #Ukraine tag on TikTok surpassed 34.2 billion views

As a widely used app with more than 3 billion downloads globally, TikTok has many features that make users vulnerable to fake news. One of them is to allow users to upload videos and audio clips without knowing the source. Plus, TikTok’s “For You” page contains mostly videos from strangers, decided by algorithms. This algorithm will display videos based on personalized data to keep users on the app for a long time. This makes fake news more accessible to users because the algorithm prioritizes more interactive content.

Assistant Professor Dustin Carnahan of the Department of Communication, Michigan State University, USA said: “The more content we interact with, the more similar content we’ll be recommended. This makes it difficult for us to access multiple sources of news, even in an age of information explosions like this. People already tend to be more accepting of statements or statements that are in line with their own views and uncomfortable with opposing views. Social media makes getting out of the comfort zone even more difficult. make it more difficult”.

The social networks themselves are also taking action to help users avoid fake news traps. Meta – the parent company of Facebook – said that this social networking platform has increased human resources to check information. However, the large number of posts also makes it difficult to check.

Experts recommend that social media users should look to official sources and verify for themselves before clicking to share anything on social networks, to avoid becoming a victim of fake news traps.

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