Misinformation Cascades
The tragic news of the attacks on Paris flooded social media websites this past weekend. For people around the world, social media was an effective way to receive news and updates of the ongoing events. However, as it turns out, a few of the prominent images and details circulating the web associated with the attacks, depicted false information, or really did not have anything to do with the events.
The “Not Afraid” image showing a large gathering of people with the lighted “Not Afraid” sign that surfaced on Facebook, instagram, Tumblr, and twitter was a photo that was taken after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January. Many people, however, assumed the image was taken for the attacks last weekend, when in reality, officials wanted people to avoid being out in the streets for their safety.
Many people also spread images and news of the Eiffel Tower’s lights going dark as a tribute to the victims of the night’s attacks. However, the Eiffel tower turns off daily late at night as an effort to save energy. People on social media were mistakenly announcing that the Eiffel Tower’s were being turned off for the first time in decades when that is not true.
In addition, many images of the Empire State Building lit in blue white and red were thought to have been for Paris when, it those images were actually taken a few days earlier on veteran’s day.
There was even a photo of a street march in Germany circulating with captions saying Germans were taking to the streets to show support for France, when the image was taken for a political movement regarding immigration.
With breaking news happening on an almost real time basis, it’s difficult to decipher what information is accurate and was a result of a cascade of inaccurate information. The examples above and in the link below portray the concept of information cascades and the idea that, like with the red/blue marble experiment, people’s conclusions are heavily influenced by what others conclude, and cascades can be based on very little genuine information.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/misinformation-spreads-social-media-following-paris-attacks-n464291