Personal Perspective woman viewing fake news
Earlier this month rumors spread across Facebook that men driving white vans were part of an organized human trafficking ring. Due to the overwhelming amount of posts on Facebook and other social media platforms warnings about white vans were taken very seriously – including by those in government.
Baltimore Mayor Bernard "Jack" Young even issued a warning during a TV interview last week that residents shouldn't park near a white van due to kidnapping concerns. Mayor Young admitted that he wasn't told of any credible threat by the Baltimore Police Department, but rather said he was responding to the threat because it was "all over Facebook."
Obvious Fake News
Warnings about vans and kidnappings are not new, and have been part of the public consciousness for decades. It is likely that the modern fear of vans goes back to the 1976 Chowchilla abduction of a school bus driver and 26 children, who were buried in a box truck in a quarry in Livermore, California.
Kidnapper van is even part of the "Urban Dictionary" and is described as "A beat-up white van, usually a Ford Econoline, and often with no side-rear windows."
The story of vans and kidnappings recently morphed on social media to one about human trafficking, where a recent post included photos of vans with external locks and suggested, "IF U SEE ANY VANS LIKE THIS CALL 911 THIS IS UTILIZED FOR SEX TRAFFICKING."
Fake News Becomes Credible
For its part Facebook has responded to these unsubstantiated posts, and has issued its own warning that the information isn't true. But the question is why do people believe this misinformation so easily?
One factor could be that the more times it is seen, the more credible it becomes.
According to new research from Daniel Effron, professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, and published in the journal Psychological Science, found that individuals are more likely to "like" and share a previously seen headline.
"Fake news is at least as old as news itself, but social media allows it to spread with unprecedented rapidity," explained Effron. "It also creates an environment where people are more likely to share information that feels intuitively 'truthy' even though they know it is false."
Hoaxes are just another part of "fake news," which has been around forever.
"The problem is today, the ability to spread those stories so quickly and efficiently to so many people," warned social media consultant Lon Safko, author of The Social Media Bible.
"Facebook is the perfect medium for spreading hoax and fake news viruses effectively," added Safko. "Currently there are 2.45 billion monthly active users posting 17 billion location-tagged Facebook posts and more than 250 billion photos every day.
"The big question here is, should Facebook be held responsible for verifying and fact checking 17 billion posts a day," questioned Safko. "I don't think so. Facebook was never intended to be The New York Times, Wall Street Journal or a Forbes news outlet. It is only a generic informal communication platform not a news outlet. Readers have to take some responsibility to fact check what news they consume."
Maybe Not So Obvious
Social media is often simply trusted because it is coming from our friends, our family and colleagues – where the reader likely assumed that someone vetted the information prior to sharing it.
This isn't itself unique to Facebook.
"Before social media, media scholar Marshall McLuhan argued that 'the medium is the message' suggesting that the channel of the message was just as important, if not more so, than the actual content of the message," said Dr. Leilani Carver-Madalon, assistant professor in the Master's in Strategic Communication and Leadership Online Program at Maryville University.
"Trusting the channel is part of the reason social media hoaxes spread so rapidly, especially in the case of Facebook where we are often scanning through content in a passive, entertainment seeking mentality," added Carver-Madalon. "Just like we trust our friends, we tend to trust our social networks and often will simply believe information coming from a friend."
Then there is the fact that many readers probably think they can spot fake stories, when in reality they cannot, said Carver-Madalon, who also cited a recent study by Moravec, Minas and Dennis that found that individuals believe social media stories that align with preexisting beliefs, yet disbelieve stories that do not.
"We determine 'truth' by only if it confirms what we already believe, thus our ability to judge hoaxes is largely skewed by our confirmation biases," noted Carver-Madalon. "Age also plays a factor, at least in spotting political fake news on Facebook. Also, we are more likely to believe a false story if there is a photo or a video. A recent study by Guess, Nagler and Tucker (2019) found that Facebook users over 65 shared fake news domains seven times more than users that were 18-29."
When Should We Be Less Skeptical?
While it is good to be skeptical of posts that seem like fake news, there is no denying its power to spread news at a seemingly alarming rate.
In the case of the white van story, perhaps it isn't such a bad idea to remind people to be cautious during the holiday shopping season, and to have a good dose of situational awareness.
"While there are many hoaxes and rumors spread through social media, we have to take every claim of trafficking seriously," suggested Mellissa Withers, associate professor of global health at the University of Southern California's Online Master of Public Health program.
"Every potential case of trafficking has to be investigated," she added. "We shouldn't discount any story because sometimes what seems impossible to believe is actually true."
However, the spreading of hoaxes as real news can have consequences too.
"It (makes it) harder for survivors to access help because they may cause people to question or doubt their stories," said Withers. "This silences survivors. It is often incredibly difficult for survivors to disclose their experiences to others. If survivors think they're not going to be believed, it may discourage them from coming forward. This prevents them from getting help."
Then there is the very real dark side of social media and human trafficking – one that certainly isn't a hoax.
"Social media can make it easier for traffickers to find victims," explained Withers. "Traffickers often identify vulnerable potential victims through social media, posing as someone looking for a friend, a date, or an employee. Over time, they may groom their victims and lure them into trafficking without even meeting them. Some of the stories that I have heard are almost unbelievable. But they are very real."
