The dangers of famous search engine news sites

Fake news is gaining more and more space on the Internet. It is not difficult to find sites, pages and blogs with biased and sensational titles to attract people’s attention. The big problem is that the bigger the space, the greater the chances of falling into a clickbait. Google itself, one of the most famous search engines, has a page rank that is famous, but exploits a lot of sensationalist and false news.

Fake news not restricted to texts on pages and websites. They are also in the form of posts and videos on social media, but the characteristics are the same. Articles that appeal to the sense of fear and violence are the ones that most attract the public, precisely because they awaken the feeling of curiosity and revulsion at the same time. But this technique is restricted only to the title or the beginning of the fake news, then it is exposed that it was not expected.

The tendency is for people online to read less and consume more audiovisual content. So, news that has biased headlines is hardly explored or read in full, but the number of shares is high, which means that most people are led to believe the first thing they see. To avoid entering the statistics of fake news sharers, find out how to avoid falling for this type of clickbait.

Question yourself

When you see news that seems to be something out of reality or extremely absurd, ask yourself questions before sharing it. It is not necessary to open the news. On Google, you can search on the subject, trying to find references that reinforce or dismiss what said. For example, the article said that a famous Hollywood actor died in a car accident. Instead of opening the article, open Google and search directly on the actor.

The best way to avoid being scammed is to always wary of hype headlines. It is common to see news about fast weight loss, for example, how to lose 10 kilos in 10 days. It a very biased title for those in the process of losing weight. Often, restrictive diets that promise rapid weight loss are not the most suggested by nutrition professionals, as these diets can put your health at risk or give the reboot effect, which, instead of generating weight loss, triggers a compulsive eating disorder.

News about promotions or sales of products that are far below the market price are also part of the clickbait technique. Many of these links that lead to the news have viruses that can infect computers or smartphones, the intention is to steal as much data as possible. So, when there is news about smartphone giveaways or discounts that no store would offer, the best option is to research whether this is really true rather than clicking on the link.

Block it

Another option for those who want to avoid contact with this type of content as much as possible is to block news sites. There are tools that make it possible to temporarily or completely block sites that the user does not want to see. It can be difficult because you have to block them one at a time, but they no longer show up in search results. Twitter has had this tool for years and it used by all users who don’t want to read news from a certain profile.

For example, on Twitter, users can block a profile. This means that the profile cannot get in touch with the user who blocked it. There is also the option to leave mute. A profile that is in mute mode can contact the user, but notifications of your tweets and messages will not appear for those who left it mute. Twitter also has the option to block words or topics, so if the user blocks a specific word, the social network will not deliver tweets and content that have the blocked word.

To block the main news sites from Google without having to visit the page of each one of them is very easy. Just open the Google news tab and click on the three dots below the title of the article, a menu of options will open with “block” as a suggestion. Just follow the same procedure on other news sites.