Five fake news from history you may not have heard of before
- showmethereality
- Dec 9, 2020
- 2 min read
We can easily assume that fake news is the same age as the Internet and appeared when everyone had the opportunity to make their opinion known to the public. In fact, fake news was spread throughout history. In the following, we will present you five cases that can help us understand why spreading false news has always been considered a good tool to mislead people.
The first example comes from the year 63 B.C. Roman ruler Augustus Octavian systematically began to spread lies throughout the empire in which he despised his opponent, Marc Antony. The two sides were in a fight, and Augustus was using fake news to try to convince Antony’s supporters that he was not fit to lead the great Roman Empire.
Another example comes from 1782. Benjamin Franklin tried to make American Revolution sympathetic to the people with the help of fake news in the Boston Newspaper. He spread that the British have hired Native Americans to scalp soldiers and civilians. The fake news was brought to the people by several newspapers and spread very quickly, which increased hatred towards the natives.
Third example: In 1927, Dorothy Cochrane Logan, a British physician, received numerous accolades and cash prizes from multiple European newspapers. She deserved this by supposedly swimming in the English Channel for 13 hours straight, which was a record time. It was later revealed that Dorothy had lied and done most of the section by boat.
In 1983, The Patriot published an article stating that AIDS could be widespread in India due to the U.S. Secret Service. The story became very popular and was brought to press in more than 50 countries. The article cited an unknown source, which stated that the Pentagon had developed a biological weapon, that is a deadly disease.
Fifth example: A 2017 article published on The Boston Tribune website claimed that the mother-in-law of U.S. President Barack Obama receives a salary from the government when she takes care of her grandchildren. The news, of course, was false and was refuted. The website that published the article was later shut down.
It is the responsibility of all of us to read the news critically and not to spread lies on the internet so that we can achieve a society less filled with false news. Thus we can achieve less fake news in our future than has happened in our past.
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