Can Fake News Be Banned From Social Media?

By Cecilia Stewart

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As most people know, there is a saying “ Don’t believe everything you read on social media”. Do people follow that rule? Most of the time… no! Really young people and older adults that just think this new technology is amazing. And honestly, it is, this world is way easier with all the new advances, but too many people use it for bad things such as fake news. It’s happened to most of us.

A few months ago, there was a rumor that a famous rapper, Lil Baby, was found dead in his car outside of his house. According to sources, this news was on Channel22News.com, but bigger sites and apps didn’t think it was a prank. It was all over Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and many other social media sites. It went so big that my friends and I all thought he died too. But I did some research and I found out a day later that it was all fake. He was still posting photos on Instagram and seemed very well alive in all of his photos and captions. So should every social media and news app/site ban fake news? Yes, very much so. Many governors have put out that they are banning fake news and just haven’t done it yet.

Can fake news be “banned”? No. Fake news is harmful and, at times, negative. We all want to learn about the world and everything going on, but this type of news disrupts lives. If there were no fake news the world would be better because we could base our decisions and opinions on real, truthful facts. With all the lies and stories flying around from unreliable sources, it's really hard to find the truth unless we see it with our own eyes. It comes down to the public being responsible for researching and double (even triple) checking sources.