US rap superstar Kanye West is known for his music, his marriage to Kim Kardashian and his support for Donald Trump.
Given his fame, any Facebook post about him is likely to get a lot of attention.
One post shared in South Africa – and flagged as possibly false – claims West scored 106 points “against wheelchair basketball team”.
It’s a cropped version of the earlier image, which says: “A charity basketball game didn’t go exactly as planned yesterday when Kanye West scored 106 points against a team of handicapped children in wheelchairs.”
But did West really humiliate disabled children in this way? Or is it just satire, shared as real news?
The story was first published on a now-defunct website, The Daily Currant, on 17 September 2014. According to a fact-check by Snopes, The Daily Currant was an online satirical newspaper.
So the story was originally satire. But when websites and blogs republish satirical stories, they sometimes lose their original context – and the joke – and become misinformation, or false news. This is one kind of misinformation Facebook is trying to reduce.
Internet users need to understand why websites publish certain stories. Is it just for the clicks, and the advertising revenue? Outrageous satirical stories are often reused as click-bait, and this is when they become misinformation. – Africa Check (22/03/19)
Given his fame, any Facebook post about him is likely to get a lot of attention.
One post shared in South Africa – and flagged as possibly false – claims West scored 106 points “against wheelchair basketball team”.
It’s a cropped version of the earlier image, which says: “A charity basketball game didn’t go exactly as planned yesterday when Kanye West scored 106 points against a team of handicapped children in wheelchairs.”
But did West really humiliate disabled children in this way? Or is it just satire, shared as real news?
When satire becomes misinformation
The story was first published on a now-defunct website, The Daily Currant, on 17 September 2014. According to a fact-check by Snopes, The Daily Currant was an online satirical newspaper.
So the story was originally satire. But when websites and blogs republish satirical stories, they sometimes lose their original context – and the joke – and become misinformation, or false news. This is one kind of misinformation Facebook is trying to reduce.
Internet users need to understand why websites publish certain stories. Is it just for the clicks, and the advertising revenue? Outrageous satirical stories are often reused as click-bait, and this is when they become misinformation. – Africa Check (22/03/19)
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
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