The situation with Coronavirus AKA COVID-19 is getting worse government is doing everything in its power to contain the casualties.
It’s not anything like we have ever seen before, we are yet to find it’s cure doctors across the world are working towards finding a vaccine but no such declaration has been made that the cure is ready or that they have found the way to create it.
Amidst pandemic like this, the best that governments can do to contain the virus and reduce casualties is to initiate a lockdown.
Some can withstand and embrace the lockdown by doing something productive or finding creative ways to kill time and adhere to lockdown whereas some find it difficult to stay put.
While on lockdown social media can propagate too much fake news. Social media isn’t itself responsible for this. It’s the content creators & content distributors like us who are responsible. The repercussions could be causing panic countrywide and even spreading hatred and violence.
How do you limit the spread of Fake News then?
Since Decode Digital Market is a Digital Marketing blog and fake news is something that is propagated using the digital channels that is the reason why I am addressing this.
1. Don’t rely on WhatsApp news
WhatsApp is a messaging app not an official news portal period. You may have tons of friends and family on WhatsApp, you may be a member of 6-8 WhatsApp groups that are propagating these fake news.
Don’t fall for it. Validate the facts with Google. Google a piece of news that someone has sent and see if a renowned news portal has reported it with proper citations or not.
If the news is valid and you think people deserve to know only then forward that piece of information.
Forward WhatsApp messages responsibly.
2. Use Google’s reverse image search technology to trace the source
Among WhatsApp and Facebook, you will come across images that will spew hatred towards a specific community or towards shaping your opinion about something.
Like for example, some days back a picture was circulating on the internet of lions roaming on streets it said that Russia President Vladimir Putin had released these wild creatures on streets so that people don’t leave home during the lockdown some news out of over-enthusiasm even ran the story. It was later found with the reverse Google image search that, that was an old picture.
How do you do reverse google image search?
There are two ways to do that
1. Download the image, open Google Images on your PC/Laptop and drag and drop the image in the search field and press enter. Upon pressing enter all the websites where that image was posted will show up in the search results.
2. If you find the image on the Internet while you are browsing, just right click on the image and select “search google for image”
Upon clicking “search google for the image you will end up on a search results pages that will look like this”
Now what you are seeing is the list of all the web pages in the search results that have that image.
And boom! The very 1st result is the one that bears fact. Here is the link in case you wanna validate the facts.
P.S Take a look at the time stamp it’s 2016
3. Spread awareness about fake news
As soon as you spot a piece of fake news using the tools I have highlighted above let the person who shared that fake news with you know that it was fake news. If it takes then share the same news on social media too.
Fake news goes a long way because we share it. It’s only 1% content creator’s doing and 99% our doing. Don’t let them win.
Now do your part and share this valuable piece of information to prevent the spread of fake news. 🙂
Kunjal Chawhan founder of Decode Digital Market, a Digital Marketer by profession, and a Digital Marketing Niche Blogger by passion, here to share my knowledge