Does the title of my pot sound familiar or fake? Perhaps you saw the news posting on either your Facebook or Twitter timeline? On Sunday, December 4, 2016 28 year old Eddie Maddison Welch was arrested for walking in the front door of a popular PIzzeria(Comet Ping Pong) in Northwest Washington. What was this man's motive for shooting a simple pizza restaraunt? When asked by police Welch replied by saying he was self investigating a news report he read online that involved Hilary Clinton and her campaign manager were running a child sex ring from the restraunt's backrooms. With all fake news reports, there are users who can see right through the fake news post but there is others who take it very seriously and just like Welch did, believe it far enough to walk down to the restraunt and point his weapon at employee and fire his weapon in order to "presumably look for alleged tunnels where the children were hidden and tortured. Comet Ping Pong was a victim of fake news and outrageous conspiracy theories that were highly spread during the presedential election. As James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong, states, "What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away." This is a perfect example of possibly one of the worst case examples of what fake news can cause. Up until this point, all I thought was possible through fake news was spreading false information online but now I see what is possible with fake information such as even purchasing a fake product from an fake source. The fake news did not end with Comet Ping Ping as other restaraunts around the area were also victims to fake news. Matt Carr, the owner of a coffee shops reported that he began recieving a large amount of crank calls due to fake news. He even begins to state his fears, "“This was our worst fear,” he said, “that someone would read all this and come to the block with a gun. And today it happened.”I found it very interesting to read about this particular report because it was fake news circulated on social media not on television. It is now even more important to not quickly "Share" a click bait news report, read it and verify the claims within it. No one should be harmed with fake news stories.
2 Comments
Darren Chan
4/9/2017 01:12:19 pm
Fake or real, news are suppose to influence people and showing conspiracy theories. I hate fake news but its hard now to trust different news sources. I think it just depends on the amount of information that is given and looking into different news sources to validate if it is fake or real.
Reply
Hello,
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFirst generation computer scientist that loves football. Archives
May 2017
Categories |