#nataboutfakenews

We are living in an age of “infomania”, one where we are constantly consuming information daily. This digestion of information overload causes us to want to be the first ones to know everything and to be in the loop always. However, who is to say that the information we digest on a daily basis is “true” or credible? Personally, when I read a news story, I never fact check it; I think to myself that because it is on the internet it must be automatically true, right? False.

Fake news has grown to be a huge problem nowadays and there is little to nothing to do to stop it. It has become so widespread that even Facebook is having trouble detecting whether or not the content posted on their platform is true. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, states the different ways that Facebook Inc. is addressing hoaxes and fake news outlets. The company relies on community reporting, flagging stories, informed sharing and disrupting financial incentives for spammers in order to fight this problem.

Widespread digital propaganda and fake news is not a problem that can be fixed easily, it is a cultural dilemma, according to Medium. Media literacy not only gives people access to the media easily, but it allows users to manipulate the media. Thus, we cannot “assume that information intermediaries can fix the problem for us,” but, on the other hand, we can become smarter and get more creative in finding solutions to go to war with fake news.