Title: Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it?
Headings: Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it?
Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it?
The origins of fake news
How did the internet and social media change things?
Impact of Russia, the 2016 US election and Trump
So, what exactly is fake news?
Has it had an influence?
What is being done about it?
How do you spot it?

Content: Before the internet, it was much more expensive to distribute information, building up trust took years, and there were much simpler definitions of what constituted news and media, making regulation or self-regulation easier. But the rise of social media has broken down many of the boundaries that prevented fake news from spreading in democracies. In particular it has allowed anyone to create and disseminate information, especially those that have proven most adept at "gaming" how social networks operate. Facebook and Twitter allowed people to exchange information on a much greater scale than ever before, while publishing platforms like WordPress allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease. In short, the barriers to creating fake news have been undone. In addition chat apps like WhatsApp have become hubs for disinformation and fake news, so much so that its parent Facebook reduced the number of people users can forward a message to down to five. Other apps like end-to-end encryption app Telegram has also allowed for false information to be more readily spread. Impact of Russia, the 2016 US election and Trump
In 2019, Trump unveiled the winners of his much-touted " Fake News Awards ", escalating his already persistent attacks on a number of major US media outlets. The brash Republican president announced the ten "honorees" using his preferred medium of Twitter, linking to a list published on the Republican Party's website that crashed minutes after his big reveal. Trump's Twitter account became a hub for fake news and misinformation with the social media site making the decision to label his tweets last year.