Trick or treat? Here’s how you can uncover misinformation online

Along with the people going online to look for scary costume ideas and tricks and pranks, there are dark forces lurking all year long, spreading false information online. To avoid getting tricked while navigating the web, it is important to read and #ThinkFirst before sharing any news.

Here are some ways Google can help you smartly identify misinformation online:

1. Cross-reference your news sources: Using Google News, check whether the information has been reported on by reputable media. If the news cannot be corroborated by another legitimate source, it might be false.
2. Check if an image is being used in the right context: Right-click on a photo and select “Search Google for Image”. This will look for the picture against an online database to check if it has appeared online before, and in what context, so you can see if it has been altered from its original meaning.
3. Look closely at the URL: Some sites try to look like a reputable media by using similar domain names. This provides credibility to the information you are reading and provokes a false sense of security that what you are reading is true.
4. Verify a recent topic using Fact Check Explorer: Fact-checking uses fact-based verification to determine what is true from what isn’t. These checks are now widely available online and indexed on the Fact Check Explorer database. If something sounds too good to be true, you know where to check!
5. Search for the article’s references: False stories have an attention-grabbing headline to attract readers, but the article details probably won’t add up. If you can’t verify quoted information (people’s names or organizations), they might have been invented for the story’s purpose.