A South African created a flowchart to help people stop sharing fake news, which has now been turned into a full-on website!
Johannesburg, South Africa (13 April 2020) – Social media has become the new source of the news, or what we call news… where opinions can often quickly become fact, and the number of shares turns these opinions into “breaking stories” but stories that are not actually worthy news.
South Africans (and the world) are being exposed to increasing amounts of fake news online or these “opinions that become facts”, particularly through false articles posted and shared on social media sites! On top of that, our social media newsfeeds are also being layered with “news” websites that are posting breaking news – often with gripping headlines – which are completely fake or just click-bait.
And our social media friends who love being “news breakers” also love sharing these stories, usually without fact-checking.
Luckily, one South African has come up with a simple way to help break the fake news cycle.
Mike Stopforth – director of Beyond Binary – created a simple flowchart to help South Africans decide whether they should share a “news item” which quickly went viral on twitter.
It then got picked up by many others who created their own versions, including the South African government, and now the flowchart idea has now even been turned into a website!
Ewan McPhail, another South African, took the concept and created www.shouldisharethis.com. He thanked Stopforth in a tweet for the original idea, flowchart and domain.
It’s a simple website which takes the user through a set of questions as to whether they should actually share whatever “breaking news” they may have found, ultimately helping get rid of the fake news cycle.
It’s funny, but also much needed and we are giving you the full permission to share this with all your “news breaker” friends!
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