Fake news is a plague on social media

Fake news: It's all over the Internet. Sometimes it is easy to spot. Other times, it seems real, like when quotes from politicians fit our preconceived notions of what we think they would say in a given situation. If someone with good or nefarious intentions comes up with a meme or a well-written story, it can spread like wildfire on Facebook. This past week your social media feed may have been dotted with stories about Led Zeppelin getting back together to tour, the sons of the Beatles forming a band and going on tour, and Scott Walker really hating Labor Day.

Often these fake stories hide under the guise of satire. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, or all four to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, often within the context of politics and other topical issues. The stories about Led Zeppelin and the Beatles both are on websites that consider themselves satirical. Satire is hard to write. Many people, myself included, have tried and failed at it. That being said, it's easy to spot good satire when reading or watching it. The Simpsons, Futurama, and South Park all do—or in some cases, did—satire very well. George Orwell's Animal Farm is another example of satire. Fake news stories like the examples presented above are not satire. If the writers think they are, they've missed the mark.

A year ago Facebook started adding a satire tag to some of these hoax news stories. Unfortunately, this has not stopped the hoaxes from filling our news feeds.

Keep reading below as we hash out these hoaxes.