Although the media is not going through its best moment, due to the lack of neutrality, when it comes to being informed about issues related mainly to health, they are always the best way to avoid falling into hoaxes, conspiracies and others. In case we had any doubts, the guys from NewsGuard have published the results of a study stating that some social networks are becoming the new source of information for the youngest.
Last year, TikTok became the most popular website in the world according to Cloudflare, thus confirming the spectacular growth that the platform had experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of young people use this platform as their main means of communication, since “it is not necessary to read” the information we are looking for, unlike Google. Google, like Facebook, have introduced different methods on the platform that are responsible for analyzing and verifying the veracity of the news, to give them greater or lesser importance on the platform.
In fact, going back to the topic of coronavirus, most of the news that offered invalid methods to avoid being infected or eliminate it from the body, have barely been relevant on both platforms, however, on TikTok, we can still find a large number of videos with wrong information. In addition, when we start typing search terms, this platform always suggests searches that do not really address the topic, but instead promote misinformation, unlike Google, where the search autocomplete function does not offer suggestions towards fake news. No matter how popular certain types of searches are or have been, Google does not offer them, so the dissemination of this type of news is avoided, however, in the search results we can find this type of news, but we must look hard to find them.
combat disinformation
The best way to combat disinformation is to contrast it with other media. Obviously, when it comes to political news, we each have our preferences and we will always opt for the media related to our thoughts. But, when it comes to health-related news, it is always advisable to check the information, either through the main media or by searching on Google.
In addition, we must also look at the source of the news. Through the source, we can quickly find out if it is fake news or just misinformation. If we prefer to be “read the news” instead of turning to TikTok, the best platform to be informed is YouTube, where Google also applies the algorithm that eliminates erroneous or directly false information. Of course, conspiracy lovers will be able to continue finding information about the reptilians that rule the world, the theories about flat earthing and others.
