3 How to spot false or fake news

Fake news like other forms of disinformation and misinformation is nothing new. It has been used throughout history – you may have studied the use of propaganda in the Second World War (1939–1945) or the Cold War (from the 1950s to 1989) for example. More recently in the war in Ukraine, both mainstream media and social media have become battlegrounds in which propaganda and misinformation are widely used. In the world of social media, misinformation is just more personally targeted whether for fun, to influence you for political reasons or just to make money. This matters because the information you are exposed to often shapes how you see the world, and your understanding of society. It can also influence how you feel and the decisions you make. This is particularly the case in times of high emotion, political tension or conflict. Remember for example, some of the comments by young people and community workers in the Shankill about the false information and fake messages they were targeted with.