September 2016 Monthly Round-Up
Here’s the popular and latest news for September 2016
There’s a new type of like-farming, and no, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t removing Trump from Facebook
As if there were not enough tricks and schemes to lure people into liking and sharing spammy Facebook posts, another one has surfaced. It’s the “This post needs to get X shares” variant of like-farming, and it’s done very well in tricking plenty of people recently.
Namely, a post claiming Mark Zuckerberg would remove Trump if a post got over 500K share spread virally, getting plenty more shares than what was apparently required. Later another version claiming it was Clinton getting removed that spread across Facebook. Both were false, but hundreds of thousands shared the posts regardless, and some like-farming Facebook pages/profiles increased their follower reach.
Don’t drill a hole in your iPhone, please.
Apple has been taking plenty of flack recently for releasing an iPhone without a standard headphone socket. Well, according to one viral video, iPhone users can get that socket back, by drilling a hole into their phone using a 3.5 drillbit.
We shouldn’t have to tell anyone that it’s a hoax, and you’ll most probably wreck your phone if you try it.
Promising news when it comes to fake news
Facebook and Twitter have joined a number of tech and media companies to help tackle the surge of fake news, which will include education and helping people verify fake headlines. Will it work? Get more information in our post here.
Yahoo hacked big time.
September 2016 sees the biggest mass data breach in Internet history, with over 500million accounts compromised. However the breach itself took place in 2014, and Yahoo have only just found out. If you haven’t changed your Yahoo password since 2014, we recommend you do it soon.
The tabloids went nuts over a picture of 3 seals.
Why? Because it made great clickbaity headlines, that’s why. See how here.
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Should I share missing child posts on Facebook?
It’s a question we get often, and while social media can be great at locating missing children, there are important things to consider before you hit the share button. We go into it in this blog post here.
6 hoaxes that pop up at the same time every year
Some hoaxes (like the one below) are guaranteed to make an appearance at the same time each year, without fail. We outline 6 of them right here.
Royal Legion CAN sell poppies in the UK
September means we get the first of the autumn seasonal hoaxes spreading, and the claim that minorities are offended by poppy sellers is always a far-right favourite. This has been spreading for a number of years now, and always gains popularity at this time of the year. It’s false.
You won’t get EasyJet tickets for sharing a Facebook post.
No, seriously, you won’t. This has been one of the more popular versions of fake giveaways during September, and it’s just not true.