Don't let purveyors of fake news ruin your online reputation

Mark Zuckerberg had no idea what he was doing when he converted Harvard “Face Books” -- physical books with photos of fellow students living in the dorms -- into a web site that quickly grew into the social media phenomenon that plays such an important part, for good or ill, in our daily lives.

While playing down the influence Russia or other foreign countries had on his election by manipulating social media, President Trump uses it extensively through multiple tweets per day.

While professional journalists must stand by their work, at risk of being sued, fired or worse, fake news operations, at best, are designed to generate clicks to sell to advertisers, at worst, to manipulate elections and public policy.

While many older Americans enjoy keeping up with their families via social media, many are unfortunately easily fooled by fake news. NPR reported on the nonprofit organization, Senior Planet, that is helping train senior citizens to spot fake news and avoid passing it on.

One good way to judge a news source: Does it run corrections?

ONTHEMEDIA.ORG offers some other tips to avoid being fooled:

-- ALL CAPS or obviously photoshopped pics

-- A glut of pop-ups and banner ads are good signs the story is pure clickbait.

-- Check the domain. Fake sites often add .co to trusted brands to steal their luster, such as “abcnews.com.co”

-- Check the “About” page on an unknown site, then Google it with the word “fake” to see what comes up.

-- Check out the links. No links, quotes or references are another telltale sign of fake news.

-- Verify an unlikely story by finding a reputable outlet reporting the same thing.

-- Check the date. Social media often resurrects outdated stories.

-- Read past headlines; often they bear no resemblance to the story.

-- Photos may be misidentified and dates. Use a reverse image search engine like TinEye to see where an image really comes from.

-- Gut check. If a story makes you angry, it’s probably designed that way.

-- Finally, if you’re not sure it’s true, don’t share it!

You might not be fired or sued if you share a fake news story, but do you really want to do that to your friends? If you have doubts, take a breath and watch a few cat videos instead. That way, you’re only wasting time instead of your reputation.