• What is a hoax?
• How to detect a hoax?
• Hoax on social media

We explain what hoaxes are and why they are a serious problem for Internet users. Also, how to detect a hoax?

Internet known as hoax, hoax or fake news to a News false, that is, an attempt to make people believe that something false is real, using stockings truths, Photographs tricked or coming from another origin, or misrepresentations.

It differs from fraud in that it does not throw gain material of any kind for its creators, but rather seeks to be replicated and distributed through all possible channels. And it can also be distinguished from rumor, which is a information credible from unverifiable sources.

The term hoax comes from English and means "farce", and became popular in the culture online when attempts were made to deceive consumers users through emails fraudulent. Currently, it is common to find them in forums, social networks or massive information exchange environments.

Studies by the Association of Internet Users of Spain, a non-profit association that watches over the rights of Internet users, warns that 70% of those who use the Internet are not able to distinguish between a hoax and true information.

This denotes a trouble paradoxical arisen in the framework of technologies massification of information: being in contact with more information does not translate into being more informed, unless there is a way of discerning between what is true, what is possible and what is obviously false, that is, a source of legitimacy of the information.

How to detect a hoax?

Most hoaxes adhere to the following guidelines or structures:

• They are anonymous. They lack reliable sources of information, they do not have authorship, they do not cite any text and they are not endorsed by anyone.
• They have no context. They lack a publication date and other recognizable marks (of place, etc.), and they are written in a timeless, universal way that guarantees their credibility and their survival on the Internet for as long as possible.
• They are written in neutral. They do not usually have linguistic or dialect brands, since they bet on the widest possible audience.
• They are sensationalists. Hoaxes do not transmit everyday information, but promise to reveal some secret truth (so secret that it is free on the Internet), a magic trick, a fact millionaire or some other confidence that generates curiosity, fear or indignation in the reader, and often coerces them to share the information so that it is “known” or as the only way to protect the person who receives it (for example: “Send this message to 10 friends or you will have years of bad luck "or" Send this email to all your contacts and you will participate in a millionaire raffle).

Hoax on social media

The social networks Y services Messaging services are a frequent means of receiving hoaxes, which never come from anyone but aspire to be replicated by everyone. The characteristics of the previous point are repeated in them and the best way to combat them is simple: not by replicating them.

Do not spread unreliable information to contacts who, after all, trust the relationship they have with us (and therefore are more receptive to the information).