Browse Definitions :
Definition

fake news

Fake news is an inaccurate, sometimes sensationalistic report that is created to gain attention, mislead, deceive or damage a reputation. Unlike misinformation, which is inaccurate because a reporter has confused facts, fake news is created with the intent to manipulate someone or something. Fake news can spread quickly when it provides disinformation that is aligned with the audience's point of view because such content is not likely to be questioned or discounted.

In recent years, the internet has provided a low-cost distribution channel for fake news. Posting fake news in discussion forums, website comment fields, blogs and social media websites requires little, if any, technical know-how. Social media websites in particular have proved to be an easy venue for distributing fake news. Bogus stories can be tweeted or posted from a mobile smartphone and quickly distributed to a large audience through retweets and sharing.

Although some creators and distributors of fake news have political or social agendas, others are more entrepreneurial, using fake news that appeals to recipients on an emotional level to make money from digital advertising placed around the content. When fake news is used to spread propaganda, it can be dangerous. In addition to shaping public opinion and behavior, it can also cause mistrust, encourage dissent and deflect attention from real news.

In response to criticism about failing to curb the distribution of fake news during the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Facebook and Google have taken steps to crack down on disinformation. They have formed a coalition called First Draft and are working with major media outlets to educate Internet users about how to spot fake news. They are also working with third parties to create independent fact-checking websites and are exploring ways to identify and label news stories that can not be verified, much like the way Wikipedia editors label entries they feel should be questioned.

On the internet, news that is created with the intent to deceive often has poor grammar and misspelled words; it may use racial language or have an excessive number of capital letters and exclamation points. To verify the accuracy of a news story, it can be useful to query a search engine in order to confirm that legitimate, traditional news sources are also covering the story; fake news stories often have only one source. Another strategy for identifying fake news is to check the host site's domain name and URL. Often, fake news will appear to have a legitimate-sounding domain name, but will have a URL that ends in .com.co or another unusual suffix. 

This was last updated in February 2017

Continue Reading About fake news

Networking
  • remote infrastructure management

    Remote infrastructure management, or RIM, is a comprehensive approach to handling and overseeing an organization's IT ...

  • port address translation (PAT)

    Port address translation (PAT) is a type of network address translation (NAT) that maps a network's private internal IPv4 ...

  • network fabric

    'Network fabric' is a general term used to describe underlying data network infrastructure as a whole.

Security
CIO
  • digital innovation

    Digital innovation is the adoption of modern digital technologies by a business.

  • business goals

    A business goal is an endpoint, accomplishment or target an organization wants to achieve in the short term or long term.

  • vertical SaaS (software as a service)

    Vertical SaaS describes a type of software as a service solution created for a specific industry, such as retail, financial ...

HRSoftware
  • employee onboarding and offboarding

    Employee onboarding involves all the steps needed to get a new employee successfully deployed and productive, while offboarding ...

  • skill-based learning

    Skill-based learning develops students through hands-on practice and real-world application.

  • gamification

    Gamification is a strategy that integrates entertaining and immersive gaming elements into nongame contexts to enhance engagement...

Customer Experience
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based portfolio of business applications from Microsoft that are designed to help organizations improve ...

  • Salesforce Commerce Cloud

    Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based suite of products that enable e-commerce businesses to set up e-commerce sites, drive ...

  • Salesforce DX

    Salesforce DX, or SFDX, is a set of software development tools that lets developers build, test and ship many kinds of ...

Close