No, their sons are not forming a band.
Fake news: It's all over the Internet. Sometimes it is easy to spot. Other times, it seems real, like when quotes from politicians fit our preconceived notions of what we think they would say in a given situation. If someone with good or nefarious intentions comes up with a meme or a well-written story, it can spread like wildfire on Facebook. This past week your social media feed may have been dotted with stories about
Led Zeppelin getting back together to tour, the sons of
the Beatles forming a band and going on tour, and
Scott Walker really hating Labor Day.
Often these fake stories hide under the guise of satire. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, or all four to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, often within the context of politics and other topical issues. The stories about Led Zeppelin and the Beatles both are on websites that consider themselves satirical. Satire is hard to write. Many people, myself included, have tried and failed at it. That being said, it's easy to spot good satire when reading or watching it. The Simpsons, Futurama, and South Park all do—or in some cases, did—satire very well. George Orwell's Animal Farm is another example of satire. Fake news stories like the examples presented above are not satire. If the writers think they are, they've missed the mark.
A year ago Facebook started adding a satire tag to some of these hoax news stories. Unfortunately, this has not stopped the hoaxes from filling our news feeds.
Keep reading below as we hash out these hoaxes.
Back in 2011, I was taking several courses on the power of social media. The curriculum covered how social media could reach people in ways no one had ever thought about before. At that same time, one of my own photos from the Wisconsin Uprising went viral. I never saw it coming, but my photo (shown below) was everywhere. The photo was originally part of a diary on Daily Kos that documented the protests here in Madison. Within 20 minutes of that diary going up, my photo started appearing on Facebook and Twitter. The very next day at a protest march, the photo I took was on buttons and t-shirts. That is the speed at which social media can move.
This image of mine went viral on social media. People made money off of it, but I did not.
That incident illustrated the power of social media more than anything that could be taught in a classroom. Social media, if used the right way, can be a great force for good. Used the wrong way, well, it is a propagandist's dream. Once a meme or a fake story is out in the wild, it is out there forever and if strong enough, it can take on a life of its own.
In these photos you will see what is truly a refugee crisis. After all, the caption reads, "The scale of the Syrian Refugee Crisis!?" After it was pointed out that these photos were from 1991's Albanian refugee crisis, the caption was updated. Now, several lines below the main caption, the post states that history is repeating itself and includes a YouTube link to the story of the 1991 refugee crisis. Still, the organization that published the photos has linked them to the current Syrian refugee crisis. If you saw these images prior to the update, or did not click on "See More" below the photos, you would have no idea that these images are more than 20 years old because they sure look convincing. And they should look convincing as they are from a refugee crisis—just not the one in Syria. All it took was Googling the name of the ship to discover where the photos actually came from.
The Scott Walker meme mentioned above is another example of the dark side of social media. It is a quote about Labor Day, in which the Wisconsin governor (supposedly) says:
Labor Unions don’t deserve to have a national holiday. They’ve done more damage to our economy than any recession ever did. Labor Day should be replaced by Patriots Day, celebrated every year on 9/11.
Now, Scott Walker is despicable, and this quote is right on the edge of something a failing presidential candidate might say to out-Trump Trump. But it's a statement that, appealing as it might be to his base, could never be rolled back in a general election. It does fit many of our preconceived notions about Walker and the beliefs of the right wing.
Studies have shown that people do search out and read news that fits their own bias:
Researchers found that people spent 36 percent more time reading articles that agreed with their point of view than they did reading text that challenged their opinions.
Which explains why this particular meme appeared to be particularly popular among people who protested Scott Walker and identified as union supporters. The meme fit the preconceived notions many of us on the left have toward Walker. But a quick search of reliable sources on the Internet showed he never uttered those words.
To quote Uncle Ben from Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility." We have an entire world of information at our fingertips, but it takes just seconds to verify whether something is real or not. All we have to do is take a few minutes to verify before passing something along, but we don't. This is where social media and the speed at which it moves can be dangerous. Misinformation is everywhere, it can be spread quickly, and it can live forever. If something sounds too good to be true, if it sounds too perfect, take a couple minutes and research the item in question. On a small scale, it will save you the embarrassment of posting a fake story. On a large scale, it will stop the spread of misinformation, and deprive those who want to spread these hoaxes of what they want: Your clicks. If we stop clicking on them, they will go away.