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Fake news is not a 21st-century phenomenon,/nor is it always dangerous.
Sometimes fake news/is the result of misunderstanding,/like the toilet paper scare of 2020. Other times,/it is a simple mistake,/like the day in 1874/when a newspaper reported/that America’s beloved author,/Mark Twain,/had died. Everyone was saddened,/except Mark Twain,/who was perfectly fine and traveling in Europe. Twain sent a telegram:/“The reports of my death/have been greatly exaggerated.”
However,/sometimes false news is extremely dangerous. Consider the Nazi propaganda/(official government fake news)/that controlled the thinking of millions of Germans in the 1930s/and contributed to the massacre of millions of Jews.
Up until the 21st century,/fake news spread from person to person/or over radio and TV. But in the current century,/it spreads faster and farther/and much more dangerously on social media. In fact,/millions of people are exposed/to extremely destructive false information on the Internet.
It is a matter of the greatest importance to have a discerning mind/in order to identify and reject fake news. But how should we proceed?
Fake news is not a 21st-century phenomenon,/nor is it always dangerous.
Sometimes fake news/is the result of misunderstanding,/like the toilet paper scare of 2020. Other times,/it is a simple mistake,/like the day in 1874/when a newspaper reported/that America’s beloved author,/Mark Twain,/had died. Everyone was saddened,/except Mark Twain,/who was perfectly fine and traveling in Europe. Twain sent a telegram:/“The reports of my death/have been greatly exaggerated.”
However,/sometimes false news is extremely dangerous. Consider the Nazi propaganda/(official government fake news)/that controlled the thinking of millions of Germans in the 1930s/and contributed to the massacre of millions of Jews.
Up until the 21st century,/fake news spread from person to person/or over radio and TV. But in the current century,/it spreads faster and farther/and much more dangerously on social media. In fact,/millions of people are exposed/to extremely destructive false information on the Internet.
It is a matter of the greatest importance to have a discerning mind/in order to identify and reject fake news. But how should we proceed?