Fake news
A 2015 fake news article was circling the internet and social media after TMZ claimed a Baltimore police officer shot and killed toddler, Malik Gibson after mistaking his pacifier for a gun. This story starting being published by many other fake news websites as well in June of 2015. TMZ states in their article, “More tragic news out of Baltimore as 2-year-old Malik Gibson was shot by Baltimore police officer Greg Browning after Browning mistook the pacifier in Gibson’s hand for a handgun. Browning’s report of the incident was released earlier today.”
A quick browse through google has proven this story false. After searching the story the only results found was “Snopes” claiming the story was fake, saying it has been spread through out social media and the internet since April of 2015. “ The claim that a Baltimore toddler was shot by a police officer who mistook a pacifier for a gun was introduced following the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, but it spiked in popularity after the July 2016 shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.” This was 1/2 websites that had any information of what I was looking for. The second website I found was “notallowedto.com” This website contained pictures of the boy, the crime scene, and information found on Snopes that they claimed as fake news. “ Browning says: “I could tell that he was going to be aggressive. When I saw him reach for the object, I knew it was going to be him or me. My kind is Not welcomed in these kind of neighborhoods.”” Browning is said police who had “shot” Malik Gibson, this is the exact information that had been fact checked on ‘Snopes’ and proven fake information.
The website ‘notallowedto.com’ can easily take any photo from the internet of an injured baby and claim it as Malik Gibson. On this website there is no publish date, no author of the article, and no sources of where the information was found. ‘Snopes’ has already proven the information published on this website as fake, also with no stated author, sources, or dates that indicates immediate red flags pointing to a fake news story. Publishing something as controversial in todays day catches readers attention to where they do not even look for these indicators while reading such articles. “Snopes.com has been exposing false viral claims since the mid 1990s, whether that’s fabricated messages, distortions containing bits of truth and everything in between.” With websites like ‘Snopes.com’ readers can be more observant to picking out false and true information.
Social media and several internet sources can be very decieving to viewers. In todays day and age our ways of with holding information solely relies on social media and news sources. We can use skills to deceiver which sources are true and false just by minimal research. By doing this more readers can stop the spread of most fake news.
Works cited
LaCapria, K. (2016, July 7). Cop shoots 2-year-old black baby after mistaking pacifier for gun. Snopes. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cop-shoots-2-year-old-black-baby-after-mistaking-pacifier-for-gun/
George. (2017, June 20). Cop shoots two year old black baby after mistaking pacifier for gun. News And Entertainment. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://notallowedto.com/cop-shoots-two-year-old-black-baby-after-mistaking-pacifier-for-gun/
Eugene Kiely, L. R. (2020, May 11). How to spot fake news. FactCheck.org. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/