From experience, tracking the source of a rumour can often prove difficult. There are thousands of hoaxes out there with no indication of who started it and why.
However with much of the recent nonsense that has found itself spreading virally across cyberspace, tracking down the source hasn’t proved to be too much of a problem.
And this is because much of it all starts from the same place – fauxtire websites.
Fauxtire is the name we’ve given to the growing number of sites that publish ‘clickbaity’ fake news articles under the guise of satire. However this guise of satire is dubious, given the lack of any obvious humour within the article itself.
The reality is that these fauxtire articles exist purely to lure visitors to their website, with the clear objective to confuse visitors into believing the fake news is genuine and sharing it with their friends. This traffic is then used to make money for the website owner through the use of sponsored advertisements.
Fauxtire websites, like many different types of online spammers and scammers, will often exploit international stories like the Ebola outbreak and ISIS.
It is important to ensure that the information you share is genuine and the website can be trusted. We list 5 ways to make sure you’re reading an article on a legitimate website and not a site that makes its money by tricking you.
Does the website you are on have a disclaimer? Many genuine satire sites like “The Onion” and a handful of fauxtire websites will include disclaimers at the bottom of the page or on another page confirming that the information on the website isn’t real.
However more recent examples of fauxtire websites do not include a disclaimer, and the number 1 fauxtire website National Report removed their disclaimer some time ago.
Take a look around the website you’re on and read some other articles. Are the articles real or are they all bogus? Fake news websites only publish one thing – fake news. You can determine the legitimacy of a site by reading other articles it publishes.
Popular and established fauxtire fake news websites like Empire News and National Report will have a reputation online which can quickly be seen by doing a simple Internet search of the website name or URL.
These sites make money through sponsored advertisements that appear on their webpages. In fact we counted an epic 12 advertisements on one webpage recently on National Report. That’s a lot of ads to have on one page!
Whilst genuine news outlets will also have advertisements, you shouldn’t get the impression there is more webpage real estate devoted to money making ads as opposed to the content of the site itself.
We’re here to help and so are a lot of other people. You can ask us, our colleagues over at Hoax-Slayer or Facecrooks or ask a more knowledgeable friend. You can also research reputable news agencies to see if they have the story too, or local media if applicable. In this technology-driven age, breaking stories are picked up within minutes on sites like CNN and BBC, so you can play it safe by sticking to these reputable sites instead of blindly trusting sites you don’t know or trust.
Do your Internet contacts a favour and stop believing and sharing unverified nonsense – it wastes everyone’s time and makes a lot of money to some pretty immoral people!
Have you been guilty of sharing one of these articles in the past? Or perhaps you have a friend who is always falling for them. Let us know below.
