Trust No One

Everything I learn nowadays I read online. OK, maybe not everything. I still read books. But most of my new knowledge originates from the Internet.

The greatest challenge for me is dodging the fake news. For the most part, I was ignorant to this phenomenon. Then came a president who peddled in fake news like no one before, while blaming every other agency of doing so.

I realised this was a new world, one of information warfare. To fight in a war, you need proper weapons. So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to weed out the fake news from my life.

I learned of a few ways by which to identify reliable information:

1. Identify the source. Who is the writer? What is their background? What is their agenda? Where is the article hosted?

2. Cross-reference. Is the same information available in other reliable sources? Is it supported? Is it contradicted?

3. Use unbiased fact-checking websites such as snopes.com and FactCheck.org. Background-check those sites, too.

4. Trust no one. The Internet is home to countless charlatans and crooks. The best you can do is suspect and validate.

It’s a crazy world out there, and it’s full of lies. But if you know that, you can be prepared. Don’t let anyone deceive you. And may the truth prevail.