Paris and the trail of social media misinformation
In the wake of the multi-pronged terror attacks on Paris last Friday, social media was awash with emotion; from concern and outrage to offers of support to those in need. Unfortunately, social media was also the site of a litany of misinformation. A Sikh man was Photoshopped wearing a suicide bomb vest and holding up the Quran when he was really just holding an iPad. Rumors spread that the Eiffel Tower had gone dark in memory of the victims, when it really just goes dark every night at 1 am. Uber was accused of charging surge prices in Paris when it didn’t. A Donald Trump tweet from January about the Charlie Hebdo attacks was retweeted and spread around as if it was new.
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