Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump walks to the stage to speak … [+]
The line between news and satire has become so blurred that the latter has been distributed on social networks as fact, where it rapidly spreads misinformation. This continues to get worse, especially when legitimate news organizations – and worse, real reporters – are cited as the source of “fake news”.
Such was the case on Tuesday afternoon when verified X follower @Indian_Bronson shared a screenshot The Atlanticwhich featured a political story titled “TRUMP IS LITERALLY HITLER” with the subheading “Donald J. Trump is Adolf Hitler Reincarnated.” The purported story network listed as “Jeffrey Goldberg,” editor-in-chief of the magazine or record.
As of Wednesday morning, the post had been viewed more than 15.5 million times. The same screenshot was shared by “rightonnews” on Instagram, with the caption “Today, The Atlantic published an article titled ‘Trump is literally Hitler’. You don’t hate the media enough.”
However, it has been reported that Indian_Bronson edited the view of an article written by Mr. Goldberg and released Tuesday afternoon. Neither the photo nor the caption appeared on the website for The Atlantic.
The actual title of Mr. Goldberg’s story was “Trump: ‘I need the generals Hitler had,'” and his exposé explored the former president’s opinion of those who served in the military.
X owner Elon Musk, who has supported Trump, was among those who commented on Indian_Bronson’s post, writing “They are literally foaming at the mouth.”
Indian_Bronson did not respond to a request for comment.
The line has been crossed
Although satirical news has been around for a long time, social media posts often make it difficult to understand the context. In this case, users of X and other social media platforms would be forgiven for believing that this was a real screenshot from The Atlantic.
“This type of fake news, which purports to be from a respected news site, is quite common, but it doesn’t take a genius to double-check the veracity of such posts,” suggested Susan Campbell, renowned lecturer in Communications. Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of New Haven.
However, all too often users on social media fail to do any vetting and sharing of posts – which allows misinformation to spread. The fact that Elon Musk was among those who commented without calling it satire and/or misinformation likely further made it seem like a legitimate article from a reputable media outlet.
“What’s new in this case is that the criticism took the form of a fake article from the original source fairly faithful to the design of the original. Given how close the copy is, it’s easy to imagine people mistaking this and sharing like if it was a real source, especially if it was shared by a celebrity they trust,” explained Dr. Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan.
“As we’ve seen with other pieces of satire in this election, it gets shared by someone who casually or maliciously presents the satire as something real,” Lampe warned. “When the person sharing has such a large platform, it can easily become misinformation, regardless of what the original intent was in the sharing.”
Satire is discrediting the media
In this case, the satire may have been timed to discredit Goldberg’s genuine article and his criticism of the former president.
In this case, the satire may have been timed to discredit Goldberg’s genuine article and his criticism of the former president.
“The article that Musk shared was not in the same category as satire sites, it was the use of satire to diminish and mock the original. The Atlantic the article as very partisan,” added Lampe. “There is often criticism of the media for being partisan, especially when the articles say negative things about a favorite candidate.”
Unfortunately, with Election Day less than two weeks from now, we may see similar posts trying to sway voters’ opinions of the candidates — as well as the media.
“Potential voters should know that the closer we get to the actual election, the more fraudulent these efforts become — although fakers are pretty good at impersonating real sites,” Campbell said.
“And shame on them,” she continued. “People have a hard enough time getting honest information without going through nonsense like this.”