DISQUS

louisgray.com: louisgray.com: Smart People, Stupid Tweets. Fake News Spreads Fast on Twitter.

  • Daniel Ha · 1 year ago
    What's worse than spreading the dumb rumor via Twitter?

    Exclaiming it out loud to everyone in the office. Then spreading via IM to numerous other people. Ugh, I feel so dirty. Snopes needs to sell branded soap so I can take a metaphorical urban legend shower.
  • Sebastian · 1 year ago
    Mainstream media checks facts? I wouldn't say so ;)

    In Austria, a blog post about Google negotiating to buy a piece of land in an urban town in Upper Austria made its way into several newspapers, some of which claimed that Google wants to build a data center there, or that Google already closed the deal. The blog post was based on nothing but a Twitter message that read "Google negotiating about 0.2 square miles company grounds in Kronsdorf?!?!?!".
    Not only did newspapers not check the facts or point out that that's a highly speculative rumor, they over-exaggerated the story.
  • Louis Gray · 1 year ago
    I qualified this statement, saying "the mainstream media largely likes to prove rumors true and get multiple sources before reporting".

    I believe for the most part, they do try to follow journalistic standards, but there are absolutely exceptions.
  • centernetworks · 1 year ago
    louis - you should know by now that for some, it's all about being first - right doesn't matter.
  • Louis Gray · 1 year ago
    But I can still complain about it, right? :-)
  • Daniel · 1 year ago
    There's a Jared death rumor about once a year. This one was no different.
  • Jim Stanger · 1 year ago
    RIP Twitter - http://www.twitterremembered.com/ No I'm not going to take it. Someone knock yourself out.
  • Dr. Otto VanderWahl · 1 year ago
    Damn. First Sir Roger Moore and now Jared?? Whoese next??
  • hawksdomain · 1 year ago
    What makes this even funnier to me is that it went around Plurk more than a week ago...
  • KatFrench · 1 year ago
    Sorry for anyone who fell for it, but any time I hear about a celebrity death, my first thought is "Leg Pull" thanks to Snopes. In fact, I didn't believe George Carlin had actually died till I heard it through MSM.

    Geez, how cynical am I?
  • Eric Rice · 1 year ago
    I did the same thing... someone mentioned to me that they heard from an IRC channel that Carlin died and my first answer was "Source?" It was ETOnline first, then MSNBC/FOX, CBS, and CNN last. And yeah, I've gotten Jared jokes for a long time, that and Walt Disney's son emailing me. Of course, Disney only had daughters, lol.
  • philbaumann · 1 year ago
    Given the real-time nature of Tweets, I can't see (at least right now) how to filter this behavior. A story on digg coiuld be pulled off the shelf, but a Tweet seems to be forever.

    Of course Twitterers who repeatedly Tweet unchecked rumors could just be de-followed.

    But whatever filters we could implant, we're living in an age when we all need to be journalists to some degree. Our default mode aught to be skepticism. What's the rush? Unless someone's life is at stake, why not take the time to vet a story, either through searches or just some time. They always seem to get outed anyway in due time.
  • Adam Ostrow · 1 year ago
    I did phrase mine as a question at least ;-)
  • pixelbud · 1 year ago
    Was that because of the source? *ahem*
  • Noah David Simon · 1 year ago
    Jared is dead is my idea!
  • Noah David Simon · 1 year ago
    these guys stole the idea from me. I did the story about ten years ago in comic book form. so lame. what I really hate about the internet is how the mob steals stories because it gets around, but you don't give credit to the original idea.... I did mine is 1998! it involved intergalactic bug aliens and an advertising agency.

    it is a funny idea... but it wasn't original

    http://simonstudiotheatre.blogspot.com/2007/05/...
  • pixelbud · 1 year ago
    Word spreads fast. That is the nature of it. Once a friend told me this wasn't the case ... back to the Twitterwebs to correct it.
  • Marie · 1 year ago
    I could completely fall foul of this! I'm a journalist working for a tech news site in Ireland and I rely on Twitter amongst other things as a lightning fast source of breaking tech news. Although I do check my sources so probably not ...
  • Chris Rossini · 1 year ago
    This is where your reputation on Twitter plays a big part. If a person develops a reputation of spreading false news, they will over time 1) not be believed, 2) possibly lose followers.

    So for those who care about the above factors, the incentive is to not spread false information.
  • Derek Gathright · 1 year ago
    Looks like Kevin wasn't the source, but it sure didn't help that he tweeted it.

    http://summize.com/search?max_id=843578057&page...
  • Louis Gray · 1 year ago
    There's no question he wasn't the first person to "report" it. But he did take a little flame and make it into an inferno. 46,000 users, and a Web 2.0 rock star personality will help for sure.
  • t · 1 year ago
    You lost me at Winer being respected. Had to make sure I wasn't reading the onion.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    People were talking about the "Remembering Jared" website a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, almost got me then. Kat French has a good line about waiting for MSM to validate a claim - that's really worth thinking about, even though MSM isn't perfect and is susceptible to some problems.
  • Rishabh Mishra (possible248) · 1 year ago
    If you're going to publish news that is based off a rumor, it is best that you give the readers/viewers/listeners a warning to say that you are not sure that it is 100% true.

    The Jared thing didn't fool me as the first source I saw it from said it was most likely a fake.
  • John Dowdell · 1 year ago
    .

    re: "Smart People, Stupid Tweets. Fake News Spreads Fast on Twitter"

    That headline reads strangely to me. Smart people don't believe things just on someone else's say-so.

    .
  • Beth · 1 year ago
    Practical Jokes are apart of the Attention Economy ;) 15 minutes of fame is 15 minutes of free air time.

    Now that you've blogged about it, the idiot has achieved digital immortality.
  • Anthony Farrior · 1 year ago
    Old Media has had it's retractions too but yes unfortunately there's no "editor" to check or have someone else check the validity of breaking news. The need to be the "first" one to break the news is also a poor motivation to blurt/tweet anything newsworthy. I blame Digg for that...
  • tweetip · 1 year ago
    1st tweets for this event http://tweetip.us/lk33o
  • Kevin Donovan · 1 year ago
    Good call Louis. I actually have been thinking about how we limit misinformation - especially as it relates to politics: http://blurringborders.com/2008/06/26/how-do-yo...
  • Carl · 1 year ago
    What if you're doing your fact checking on Twitter?
  • gregorylent · 1 year ago
    subway? commercials? television? jared who? what? jeez, i thought this was the tech elite ....
  • searchgov · 1 year ago
    this would always be the issue with the unregulated web 2 era -- here is analogy - web 2 is like 60es nobar roack music era , which will take time to settle down
  • Rodney_Rumford · 1 year ago
    Louis,
    Great post and great insight on being responsible. But the other thing to note is is the velocity and frictionless way in which data travels via twitter and nodes of users follower networks. That is the streamlined beauty of twitter.

    Cheers!
  • gzino · 1 year ago
    Agreed but should be pointed out that a benefit of *new media* is that falsehoods can usually be much more quickly and effectively debunked because those 10s or 100s of thousands of people are also publishers with the same worldwide, instantaneous distribution ability.
  • richrecruiter · 1 year ago
    Hate to say it, but I think this was an orchestrated viral marketing campaign on behalf of Subway.
  • Ken Hudak · 1 year ago
    it's brilliant marketing. They don't even have ads up on the site, so it's all just for the notoriety.

    OK, there is one small opaque weird link for medical adoptions on the bottom. But, nonetheless, it's got me thinking about Subway for dinner.
  • stevenimmons · 1 year ago
    I refer to Microblogging as 'single click, no safety catch' and an easy way to put out globally distributed 'sound bites' (or should I say sound bytes!). It is an interesting idea that a fire storm can be created with rumor mongering.