With the proliferation of all manner of digital platforms that make up the social media, fake news is spreading faster than real news. The following three basic rules can help you figure out the authenticity of the articles you get in your social media accounts:Rule No 1: Cross check the sourceMany fake news items claim to originate from mainstream social media accounts. Rule no2: Validate the sourceMany fake websites and social media accounts have been deliberately set up to sound or look like their authentic counterpart. They would then proceed to load the fake website or Facebook account with the same fake news they may have posted on Twitter or other social accounts in anticipation of tricking those who will try and cross-check the fake news. Creating websites with similar sounding names is a problem that goes beyond fake news and affects other sectors particularly in the financial sector where hackers trick users to enter their online banking details into fake websites.

Source: Daily Nation May 08, 2019 07:52 UTC