The most important thing you should remember about using the internet: don’t believe everything you read. Fake news is a real problem.

Fake news is the internet version of spreading rumors: someone creates a news story that is either completely made up or provides false information about real facts and events. Some examples include:

• • A website claiming a celebrity has been killed in a serious accident when, in fact, that celebrity is alive and well. 
  • A video shows a politician saying something horrible about people with opposing political views, but the video was edited to remove certain words. The politician didn’t actually say those things.
  • An article claims that medical studies show a certain medication is poisonous to children. The medical study was paid for by a competitor, and it was designed to make it look like the medicine caused the poisoning when it was really something else. 

Fake news has been used to create political tension, divide communities, destroy businesses, and trick people into doing things that may be harmful. Unethical businesses may also use fake news to bring users to their websites so that they get paid more for advertising to a larger audience.

        The best way to avoid being a victim of fake news is to fact check with multiple, reliable sources — even better if you can go to the original source. For example, look at the original speech instead of an edited video clip. Look at the original study instead of reading someone’s summary. See if the story has been published by multiple major news sources, instead of one independent website.

The more serious something is, the more you should fact check. For example, something that affects your health or that of your family, or something that would affect the way you interact with members of your community, should always be fact checked.