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How can I spot false information?



This Life Situation is archived. The text below may not be up to date.

False information can usually be easily told apart from the truth. How can this be done?

Titles

Misinformation websites usually use titles containing CAPITAL LETTERS accompanied by pictures that have visibly been edited. The titles usually contain words like Revealed, Exclusive, Lie, Finally the truth etc. Be aware of articles with extremely long titles. And does the title even correspond with the whole article?

Name of the author

The name of the author is usually missing on most misinformation websites. You can also rarely find any information on the editorial staff. If the author does not sign their name by their article, there isn't any reason to believe them.

Sources, sources, sources

Does the article cite its sources? Are they trustworthy? Verify them in search engines.

Date

Look at the date of when the article was released. Articles that are many years old and out of date are often shared and they try to make the impression that they somehow related to current affairs.