Why Social Media Platforms are an Unreliable News Source

By Katlynn Riveros

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Instagram, and Tik Tok are used by 244 million Americans. According to statista.com, 47% of Americans unknowingly share false news on social media platforms. In an article titled “Do We Really Understand Fake News?” Michael P. Lynch states, “Current research estimates that at least 60% of news stories shared online have not been read by the person posting them.”

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Instagram, and Tik Tok are used by 244 million Americans. According to statista.com, 47% of Americans unknowingly share false news on social media platforms. In an article titled “Do We Really Understand Fake News?” Michael P. Lynch states, “Current research estimates that at least 60% of news stories shared online have not been read by the person posting them.”

There are two extreme types of people believing in false information. Some are underly untrusting and likely to believe conspiracy theories. At the other end, some are overly trusting and will believe almost anything they see on the internet. At this point, it is easier to find fake news than real news on the internet. Conspiracy theories are now becoming mainstream news, and the blame could be put on the owners of social media platforms. 

In the article, “How Fiction Becomes Fact on Social Media” in The New York Times Colleen Seifert says, “People have a benevolent view of Facebook, for instance, as a curator, but in fact it does have a motive of its own. What it’s actually doing is keeping your eyes on the site. It’s curating news and information that will keep you watching.”

Sasha Baron Cohen said during his ADL speech, “All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history.” With evidence, he states that social media platforms are not taking down false news like conspiracy theories, global warming being a hoax and exaggerations on natural disasters, because they provide more clicks. He goes on to say, “The Silicon Six—all billionaires, all Americans—who care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy.”

As technology advances, it is easier for someone to make fake news look real. This is a problem for everyone, but the elderly has been a huge target. The reason for this may be because they have less knowledge of how to use the internet.

An article by Paula Fan called “Getting Wise to Fake News,” by The New York Times states political organizations, foreign propagandists and financial fraudsters come after seniors. In Fann’s article, she says a woman age 75 has been a victim of scammers getting small amounts of money from her. The woman has also clicked on news stories that pertain to people her age and realizes it’s a scam to get her to apply for a Medicare plan. According to Fan, “That cohort [elderly citizens] shared twice as many articles from phony sites as 45- to 65-year-olds and nearly seven times as many articles as the youngest group.” The article goes on to say, “That group is at highest risk for illness from the coronavirus, a subject also generating lots of online distortion and conspiracy theories.” This is dangerous for senior and there is now a site called MediaWise for Seniors to take a free online class so they can detect misinformation on the internet.

There are sites such as Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and PoliFact.com that fact check information on the internet. In the article “How Fiction Becomes a Fact” published by New York Times. by Benedict Carey, “The networks make information run so fast that it outruns fact- checkers’ ability to check it. Misinformation spreads widely before it can be downgraded in the algorithms.” An example of this is from The New York Times podcast, Rabbit hole, in the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic (and still today), people are posting “cures” for the corona virus. They are on every media platform, especially YouTube. CEO, Susan Wojcicki, said YouTube had so much misinformation about the corona virus, that they could not delete all the content. All they could do was post a link to the CDC page. Is the motive for these social media

platforms to “raise their share price?” Or do they have too much false information to keep up with? Either way, it is important to look at content on social media with caution.

There are two extreme types of people believing in false information. Some are overly untrusting and likely to believe conspiracy theories. At the other end, some are overly trusting and will believe almost anything they see on the internet. At this point, it is easier to find fake news than real news on the internet. 

Conspiracy theories are now becoming mainstream news, and the blame could be put on the owners of social media platforms. In the article, “How Fiction Becomes Fact on Social Media” published in The New York Times, Colleen Seifert says, “People have a benevolent view of Facebook, for instance, as a curator, but in fact it does have a motive of its own. What it’s actually doing is keeping your eyes on the site. It’s curating news and information that will keep you watching.” 

In 2019, at a speech with the Antidefamation League (ADL), Sacha Baron Cohen called Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube the “greatest propaganda machine in history”. With evidence, he states that social media platforms are not taking down false news like conspiracy theories, global warming being a hoax, exaggerations on natural disasters, because they provide more clicks. He goes on to say, “they care about reaching a share price rather than protecting citizens.” 

As technology advances, it is easier for someone to make fake news look real. This is a problem for everyone, but there have been a lot of elderly being victimized over this issue. The reason for this may be because they have less knowledge of how to use the internet. An article by Paula Fan titled “Getting Wise to Fake News,” in The New York Times, states political organizations, foreign propagandists and financial fraudsters go after seniors. In Fan’s article, she says a woman of age 75 has been a victim of scammers getting small amounts of money from her. The woman has also clicked on news stories that pertain to people her age and realizes it’s a scam to get her to apply for a Medicare plan. According to Fan, “That cohort [elderly citizens] shared twice as many articles from phony sites as 45- to 65-year-olds and nearly seven times as many articles as the youngest group.” The article goes on to say, “That group is at highest risk for illness from the coronavirus, a subject also generating lots of online distortion and conspiracy theories.” This is dangerous for seniors and there is now a site called MediaWise for seniors to take a free online class so they can detect misinformation on the internet. 

There are sites such as Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and PoliFact.com that fact-check information on the internet. “The networks make information run so fast that it outruns fact-checkers’ ability to check it. Misinformation spreads widely before it can be downgraded in the algorithms.” An example of this is from The New York Times podcast, Rabbit Hole, in the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic (and still today), people are posting “cures” for the coronavirus. They are on every media platform, especially YouTube. CEO, Susan Wojcicki, said YouTube had so much misinformation about the corona virus, that they could not delete all the content. All they could do was post a link to the CDC page. Is the motive for these social media platforms to “raise their share price?” Or do they have too much false information to keep up with? Either way, it is important to look at content on social media with caution.