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And That's a Fact....Or is it?



We are always on the internet and we heavily rely on it to give us information. Everyone always cracks jokes like "Well if you read it on the internet it must me true." because obviously there are some liars on the web. Now fact checking is when you investigate an issue in order to verify the facts.   Along with fact checking we can look at misinformation which is false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.

Now who is the king of misinformation and gets fact checked on the hour? The one and only President Donald Trump the leader of the United States seems to have a bit of a fibbing problem. CNN did study on Trump for National Fact Checking Day and found that he has made 9,451 false or misleading claims in his 802 days in office. We all know that our President has been less then truthful on multiple occasions. The Washington Post Fact Checker has recently proved just how much he stretches the truth. Trump is averaging 22 misleading or false claims ON A DAILY BASIS. When speaking at a rally in Michigan last week Trump made 64 false claims in ONE rally.  According to the study Trump lies more than any President in history and is becoming less truthful as his presidency continues.

I looked in the specifics of the rally in Michigan I mentioned earlier and how his lies piled up. First off he had to bring up the 'Russia Hoax' which of course was never a hoax with 199 charges against 37 people. I don't know what his definition of hoax is but that does't sound like a humorous deception. Later then stated "The Russia witch hunt was a plan by those who lost the election to try and illegally regain power by framing innocent Americans." which as I just discussed people WERE FOUND GUILTY. Now, I'm not saying that Trump is the only President who has ever lied in office obviously. Politicians are known to stretch the truth to get into office and continue to do so once in office.

Moving away from the United States I decided to look into the elections in India and what the WhatsApp is changing the game of misinformation. The app created a 'verification center' for users to send in information and pictures that they want fact checked and the app will respond to the users. The app is owned by Facebook and the fact checking feature is known as Checkpoint and is going to be available in four different languages. The application is trying to us the software to help with the fight against 'fake news' and clear up misinformation. This is supposed to be a step in the right direction applications like Twitter and Facebook are also taking steps to help prevent fake news on the election being spread on their platforms.

I strongly encourage you the next time before you believe something or even share something expressing some news make sure you do a little fact checking beforehand. If we start thinking a little more before we press the share button or post something maybe we eliminate some of the fake news covering the internet these days.









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