Rule on article headline screenshots

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I have seen recently a very crappy behaviour being imported from Reddit (probably sourced from there) of news article screenshots that are either Photoshopped or misleading.

Example (apologies to the poster, don't mean to call you out, just the most recent example)

This is really fake news most of the time, so I think there it should be a rule that original articles (or archive links) should be posted. No screenshots.

Thoughts?
 

Webmaster

The Troll Hunter
Staff member
Administrator
Why screenshot, why not just link to the article?

My fake news might be your real news. Who decides?
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
Why screenshot, why not just link to the article?

My fake news might be your real news. Who decides?
That is exactly what I think should be happening.
People should be linking articles and the posting of screenshots should really be dissuaded

There was the "Dances you can do on TikTok to support Ukraine" and stuff like that posted here that was fake.

If it was a formal rule, then mods can issue a warning to cut it out if it gets really bad.
 

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
People are browsing Twitter and find articles much faster than by checking one news website at the time.

On the other hand, this also opens the door to link to a tweet containing falsified article screenshot.

As someone who links to quite a lot of tweets, it happens a lot (probably majority actually..) of times that most tweets contain a screenshot of an article instead of a direct link. I read the article headline and if everything passes my counter-falsified detection radar system then I assume its ok and I post it... Of course I have fallen to this trap some times, but the vast vast (like 99%) majority of times the tweets I post that have a screenshot of an article are genuine.

This is a side hobby, people who browse Twitter in their free time won't go out of their way to find whatever original article was screenshot to a tweet. There are dozens and dozens of news happening every day. It is too bothersome and actually becoming a border-line job, to start doing all that due-diligence.

I would suggest trusting some specific well known posters or/and specific Twitter accounts that they provide genuine news than hunting for hundreds of articles which have screenshots in tweets

This forum already operates in the trust aspect as well. The moment you have Blitzo and Deino tweets you know its the real stuff. And when you have tweets from certain twitter fanboys who like to posts fake images you throw it into the garbage bin.

Of course not everyone is perfect and people will inevitably fall to this trap but imo the benefits outweigh the disadvantages
so I think there it should be a rule that original articles (or archive links) should be posted. No screenshots.
For the above reasons I wrote, I don't agree with this if it includes article screenshots in a tweet

Maybe for members below a certain rank it could be considered. Personally I pay much more attention to senior members posts than junior members's writings
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
Why screenshot, why not just link to the article?

My fake news might be your real news. Who decides?
I have seen recently a very crappy behaviour being imported from Reddit (probably sourced from there) of news article screenshots that are either Photoshopped or misleading.

Example (apologies to the poster, don't mean to call you out, just the most recent example)

This is really fake news most of the time, so I think there it should be a rule that original articles (or archive links) should be posted. No screenshots.

Thoughts?
web sites of media outlets update/edit/delete articles after realizing the contents being controversial or false. So both can be "fake". So I suggest link to articles but accompanied with screen shot if there is a risk of the media outlets doing covering-up.
 

Webmaster

The Troll Hunter
Staff member
Administrator
We're not the only ones faced with this dilemma

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Users should use their judgement and only link to credible articles/news sources. Posting screenshot is just not beneficial and not a good way to assimilate information and every screenshot image you upload, it takes diskspace on the server.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I guess we don't need anything too formal, there is always the report button, but definitely something we should all look out for more and more.
 

NiuBiDaRen

Brigadier
Registered Member
That is exactly what I think should be happening.
People should be linking articles and the posting of screenshots should really be dissuaded

There was the "Dances you can do on TikTok to support Ukraine" and stuff like that posted here that was fake.

If it was a formal rule, then mods can issue a warning to cut it out if it gets really bad.
Is it fake though? It was trending online and people were ridiculing it.
web sites of media outlets update/edit/delete articles after realizing the contents being controversial or false. So both can be "fake". So I suggest link to articles but accompanied with screen shot if there is a risk of the media outlets doing covering-up.
As taxiya said, a lot of stuff gets deleted after being ridiculed and we can't trace the original source anymore.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Aaron Blunck posted tweets praising China but his tweets can't be traced anymore. So no one can say things with 100% certainty. We do know though that TikTok dances to help Ukraine was trending online as an Internet buzz trend. Maybe it was satire, maybe it didn't even exist as an actual TikTok video, but somehow became a generic Internet trend. Doesn't the existence of its satire prove its existence in the Internet space lol?

A meme doesn't have to be true, and often isn't fully true, but it is the vehicle of being a viral meme in itself that is what causes its reverberating impact on society.

What led you to think it was fake news? I mean maybe it was you who jumped the gun.
 
Last edited:
Top