So, you’re starting your day with a cup of coffee and a quick scroll through your Facebook feed. Suddenly, you see an article that one of your friends shared titled, “Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America.” You’re shocked at this “news” you’ve stumbled upon and immediately share it.

This was an actual fake news story on Facebook in 2016 and was shared by 802,000 people (BuzzFeedNews).

In the past year or so, fake news on Facebook has run rampant. News stories with no actual facts or credible sources have been getting millions of shares.

I see it every day as I check Facebook. My friends share political “scandal” articles with sources that have names aligning with their political parties. As a Journalism major, I always try to read unbiased news stories so that I know I’m getting the facts. Yes, unbiased news is hard to find today, but it still exists! For example, the Associated Press only reports the facts, and does not enter any opinion into their news releases.

The problem has gotten so bad, that after the 2016 election, the Huffington Post wrote an article entitled “Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump with Little-Known Loophole” to throw-off readers, getting them to actually open the article. The article immediately said that there was no loophole, and went on to point out the problem of fake news on social media.

So, if the news is fake, what’s the harm???

Well, in the instance of fake political news this is a major problem when it comes to informing voters. If voters believe something that isn’t true about a political candidate, it could affect how they vote in the election. An uninformed voting population leads to Americans voting for someone they may not want in office.

Guess what? There are ways to prevent the spread of fake news! All you have to do to defend your right to accurate news is:

• Check the Source of the Article: If the source is biased by name alone, know that they may be embellishing on the facts to make their party or candidate sound better.
• Read the Article: Sometimes an article leads straight to ads or a different website. Other times, the article may be about something else that you may not agree with.
• If you’re sure it’s both credible and accurate, share it, otherwise, please refrain.

That’s it, 3 easy steps to fighting fake news.