‘Fake news’ stories can damage your health

FACEBOOKAND socialmedia have been criticised for allowing the spread of fake health news.

A new report by scientists analysed 100 of the most shared health posts – and found many articles from lifestyle blogs and sites were “not credible and were potentially harmful”.

“The results show the importance of obtaining news from reputable news organisations as opposed to sources applying minimal to no journalistic rigour,” the scientists said.

Articles by traditional news outlets such as CNN, ABC News and Time were held up as examples of credible stories.

Meanwhile, specialist sites like New Scientist and ifl science.com were also found to be trustworthy but the majority of stories were on littleknown blogs and lifestyle sites, including Healthy Holistic Living, Stop Mandatory Vaccinations and US Health Magz, who were criticised for being “potentially harmful”.

In a collaboration with the Credibility Coalition, the website Health Feedback looked into the scientific accuracy of the 100 health articles.

Health Feedback is a global network of scientists and all those who review articles have a PHD and have published articles in scientific journals.

The report blames social media giants for allowing the spread of “fake news” on their platform.

“Much of the spread is facilitated by Facebook, which accounts for 96 per cent of the shares of the top 100 articles, while Reddit accounts for 2 per cent and Twitter 1 per cent.”