Quickly Tell If A Shared News Story Is Old With This Chrome Extension

Quickly Tell If A Shared News Story Is Old With This Chrome Extension

Over the past year, all (well, at least most) of us have gotten a little more sceptical about what we read in the news, especially on social media.

Within my own group of Facebook friends, one huge source of misinformation seems to be old news rather than inaccurate news.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/02/learn-about-fake-news-with-this-web-game/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/diqmxqhrqnovfejcgm7k.png” title=”Learn About Fake News With This Web Game” excerpt=”In Bad News, a ten-minute web game by Cambridge social psychology professor Sander van der Linden, you play a devious conspiracy theorist spreading fake news. The point, van der Linden tells Fast Company, is to teach people how disinformation is made and spread.”]

For instance, last week a friend of mine posted this video of someone singing “Stand By Me” to Trump with some poorly thought out lyric rewrites. No matter what your political affiliation, it’s pretty awful.

The friend had posted the video along with an undated news article and dozens of people had piled on to the comment section to discuss how inappropriate the display was given X, Y, or Z.

With a little digging, it turns out that the story was actually two years old, and that awful musical interlude happened during Trump’s run for President, not after he won.

The person who shared it didn’t have a clue.

SureOrNot is a Chrome extension that can help point those types of news failures out for you. When it detects a story is on the older side, it labels it as such. That way you can know going in that something might not be as relevant as you think it is.

In the quest to avoid “fake” or incorrect news on social media, it can be a quick and easy way to make you a little more informed while you’re scrolling through your news feed.


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