London on August 28.
A recent study discovered that people in local Facebook groups have seen many fake posts, such as untrue stories about missing kids or dangerous snakes.
UK fact-checking charity Full Fact found more than 1,200 false posts on social media groups. The organization believes that this is just a small part of a bigger problem.
According to the researchers, some posts are meant to scare people in communities by giving fake information. This fake information can be so much that it may hide the real warnings and requests for help.
The researchers thought that people may be sharing this content to make money or advertise products/services.
Many people in the UK believed false information, and the same kind of posts were also found in the US and Australia.
Additionally, the scientists discovered that a lot of the information that people shared was about children who were lost or elderly individuals who receive a pension. According to other reports, there were people who killed multiple times and men carrying knives walking around the streets.
The investigation found many social media posts saying that a man with a knife was hurting people in different cities.
“The tricksters have realized that these posts can easily spread to a large number of people, and now Facebook groups in different areas are being flooded with fake information,” explained Steve Nowottny, the editor of Full Fact.
“People are more likely to ignore real alerts about dangers and real pleas for help, like those from people searching for their missing family members or pets,” he said.
Experts say that when people on Facebook click on links in fake posts, they often end up on the real website of a real company or organization. However, they get there through a different website and a special link that earns someone money.
“We have created the biggest worldwide network of fact-checkers compared to any other platform. We have joined forces with over 90 independent fact-checking organizations, such as Full Fact, to combat false information on the internet,” said a representative from Meta.
“We do not allow dishonest actions on our platforms, so we took down the posts that Full Fact informed us about because they went against our rules. ” “We keep working on new technologies to prevent scams and catch the people responsible, even though no system is flawless,” the statement said.
The text is already written in simple words.