1. How have Google and Twitter attempted to combat fake news?
2. List three ways one may check if news is fake?
3. How does a chrome extension work?
Number 2: NPR article
1. How can one be media literate?
2. How can information be objectively verified?
3. What type of language in the "about us" section might make you skeptical?
4. How can you verify the quality of quotes?
5. How can you check the authenticity of an image?
6. How are The Onion and Clickhole NOT fake news?
Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts
Wynne Davis
Fake news stories can have real-life consequences. On Sunday, police said a man with a rifle who claimed to be "self-investigating" a baseless online conspiracy theory entered a Washington, D.C., pizzeria and fired the weapon inside the restaurant.
So, yes, fake news is a big problem.
These stories have gotten a lot of attention, with headlines claiming Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump in November's election and sites like American News sharing misleading stories or taking quotes out of context. And when sites like DC Gazette share stories about people who allegedly investigated the Clinton family being found dead, the stories go viral and some people believe them. Again, these stories are not true in any way.
Stopping the proliferation of fake news isn't just the responsibility of the platforms used to spread it. Those who consume news also need to find ways of determining if what they're reading is true. We offer several tips below.
The idea is that people should have a fundamental sense of media literacy. And based on a study recently released by Stanford University researchers, many people don't.
Sam Wineburg, a professor of education and history at Stanford and the lead author of the study, said a solution is for all readers to read like fact checkers. But how do fact checkers do their job?
Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, says fact checkers have a process for each claim they deal with.
"You'll isolate a claim that has something that can be objectively verified, you will seek the best primary sources in that topic. Find whether they match or refute or prove the claim being made, and then present with all limitations the data and what the data says about the claim being made," Mantzarlis says.
That's the framework for professionals, but there are ways for everyone to do a bit of fact checking themselves.
Melissa Zimdars is an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. When she saw her students referencing questionable sources, she created and shared a document with them of how to think about sources, as well as a list of misleading, satirical and fake sites.
Both Mantzarlis and Zimdars agreed there are a few best practices people can use when reading articles online.
Pay attention to the domain and URL
Established news organizations usually own their domains and they have a standard look that you are probably familiar with. Sites with such endings like .com.co should make you raise your eyebrows and tip you off that you need to dig around more to see if they can be trusted. This is true even when the site looks professional and has semi-recognizable logos. For example,
abcnews.com is a legitimate news source, but
abcnews.com.co is not, despite its similar appearance.
Read the "About Us" section
Most sites will have a lot of information about the news outlet, the company that runs it, members of leadership, and the mission and ethics statement behind an organization. The language used here is straightforward. If it's melodramatic and seems overblown, you should be skeptical. Also, you should be able to find out more information about the organization's leaders in places other than that site.
Look at the quotes in a story
Or rather, look at the lack of quotes. Most publications have multiple sources in each story who are professionals and have expertise in the fields they talk about. If it's a serious or controversial issue, there are more likely to be quotes — and lots of them. Look for professors or other academics who can speak to the research they've done. And if they are talking about research, look up those studies.
Look at who said them
Then, see who said the quotes, and what they said. Are they a reputable source with a title that you can verify through a quick Google search? Say you're looking at a story and it says President Obama said he wanted to take everyone's guns away. And then there's a quote. Obama is an official who has almost everything he says recorded and archived. There are transcripts for pretty much any address or speech he has given. Google those quotes. See what the speech was about, who he was addressing and when it happened. Even if he did an exclusive interview with a publication, that same quote will be referenced in other stories, saying he said it while talking to the original publication.
Check the comments
A lot of these fake and misleading stories are shared on social media platforms. Headlines are meant to get the reader's attention, but they're also supposed to accurately reflect what the story is about. Lately, that hasn't been the case. Headlines often will be written in exaggerated language with the intention of being misleading and then attached to stories that are about a completely different topic or just not true. These stories usually generate a lot of comments on Facebook or Twitter. If a lot of these comments call out the article for being fake or misleading, it probably is.
Reverse image search
A picture should be accurate in illustrating what the story is about. This often doesn't happen. If people who write these fake news stories don't even leave their homes or interview anyone for the stories, it's unlikely they take their own pictures. Do a little detective work and reverse search for the image on Google. You can do this by right-clicking on the image and choosing to search Google for it. If the image is appearing on a lot of stories about many different topics, there's a good chance it's not actually an image of what it says it was on the first story.
These tips are just a start at determining what type of news an article is. Zimdars outlined these and others in a guide for her students.
If you do these steps, you're helping yourself and you're helping others by not increasing the circulation of these stories.
And you won't be the only one trying to stop the spread of this false content. The company leaders behind the platforms these stories are shared on are trying to figure out how to fix the issue from their side, but they are also trying to make sure not to limit anyone's right to freedom of speech. It's a tricky position to be in, but they've said they'll try. In the end, it really does depend on taking responsibility and being an engaged consumer of news.
Here's one last thing. Satirical publications exist and serve a purpose, but are clearly labeled as exaggerated and humorous by the writers and owners. Some of the more well-known ones like The Onion and ClickHole use satire to talk about current events. If people don't understand that, they might share these articles after reading them in the literal sense.
If this happens or if you see your friends sharing blatantly fake news, be a friend and kindly tell them it's not real. Don't shy away from these conversations even if they might be uncomfortable. As said, everyone has to help fix the fake news problem.
Number 3
1. What is typosquatting?
2. How do cyber criminals use typosquatting?
3. Who is Paul Horner?
4. How do fraudsters use counterfeit sites?
5. How effective are security software programs?
Hackers use typosquatting to dupe the unwary with fake news, sites
Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO – The proliferation of fake news has shone a light on another murky corner the web, the practice of typosquatting.
These are the URLs that pass for common ones — say Amazoon.com instead of Amazon.com — if the user isn't paying close attention to the Web address.
Always eager to capitalize on human inattention, cyber criminals have embraced this method of registering a commonly misspelled Web address to use as a base for the distribution of malware or to steal information from unsuspecting users.
“They create a site that looks essentially like the real one, at least on the surface. It’s fairly straightforward to do and then you’re simply relying on human nature to not notice,” said Steve Grobman, chief technology officer at Intel Security.
Sometimes called URL hijacking, multiple media sites have been hit with the ploy, including usatoday.com (usatodaycom.com) and abcnews.com ( abcnews.com.co.)
The technique can make made-up stories seem more legitimate and give them a brief but powerful ride in legitimate news sites until they're debunked. Such articles played a role in this year's presidential election, though how much they influenced the outcome is unknown.
On Nov. 17, a fake story claimed to report on someone paid $3,500 to protest at rallies for then-presidential candidate against Donald Trump. The story was credited to the Associated Press, though it was not from that legitimate news outlet, and appeared on the fake news site abcnews.com.co.
The story was in fact created by Paul Horner, who earns his living writing fake stories and who told the Washington Post he made $10,000 each month selling ads on his fake news sites.
In May, the same faked ABC site published a “story” that Michael Jordan was threatening to move his NBA team from Charlotte, N.C. unless the state repealed a recently-passed law that kept transgender people from using the bathroom of their current, as opposed to original, gender.
The fake story was picked up by multiple outlets before it was finally unmasked as a hoax.
Two years ago, a Change.org petition was created in response to a made-up article from the satirical National Report, which was later picked up by a faked nbc.com.co site. The article claimed that Arizona had passed a “self-rape” law under which a 15-year-old boy was sentenced to prison after his mother found him masturbating.
These websites are created to make money in two different ways, said Akino Chikada, senior brand protection manager with MarkMonitor, a San Francisco-based company.
Fraudsters use counterfeit sites as phishing farms, trying to entice those who visit them to fill out personal information that can be used to steal credentials and other potentially saleable information.
“If you accidentally mistype a particular brand name, it could lead you to a survey. You think it’s for a brand you love, but it’s actually a thief trying to steal information about you,” said Chikada.
Companies can’t always protect themselves against this type of fraud because they can’t register every conceivable variant on their names. “It’s too expensive and inefficient. Though they do tend to register the most common typos. Then they just have to monitor,” said Chikada.
Another common ploy is for criminals to place banners or ads that link to slightly off URLs.
“You go to your site and at the bottom, you see what looks like an Amazon ad that says there's a Macbook Pro for $299. But when you click on it, it doesn’t really go to Amazon, maybe it goes to amazoon.com. But how carefully are you going to study the URL you’re clicking?” Grobman said.
Fake news sites especially take advantage of the urgency they try to create in their readers.
“They’re using the sensationalized aspect of it to make you click much quicker than if you were going through the process rationally," he said. A sensational headline, especially if it reinforces or denounces a strongly-held belief, might cause a reader to be less cautious.
Many security software programs are fairly effective against blocking such typo-ridden URLs if they go to a known malware-infected site, but some can slip through, he said.
But as with most things online, the key is awareness and taking an extra moment to stay safe. That includes glancing at a URL before accepting it as valid or perhaps opening a new browser window and actually typing in a desired destination, rather than simply clicking on a link on a site that seems dubious.
open with bright, interesting, colorful nouns and verbs
Learning target: understanding and demonstrating the use of the active voice in lead writing. 
