If you are an ordinary, private person, you also must show that the news outlet was negligent (or careless).īut most fake news relates to public figures, who can only win a defamation lawsuit by showing that the news outlet acted with “actual malice.' This means that the author must have known the story was false or must have had a “reckless disregard' for whether it was true or not.

You can sue someone for defamation if they published a false fact about you and you suffered some sort of damage as a result-such as a lost job, a decline in revenue, or a tarnished reputation. The main legal recourse against fake news is a defamation lawsuit. If the government passed laws outlawing fake news, that would be censorship that would also have a chilling effect on real news that people disagree with. The First Amendment protects Americans' rights to freely exchange ideas-even false or controversial ones. However, when people share articles without reading beyond the headline, a story that was supposed to be a parody can end up being taken as the truth.

Some “fake news' is published on satire sites that are usually clearly labeled as satire.

Their purpose is usually to get “clicks' and generate ad revenue or to promote their owners' political viewpoint. They may invent “news' stories or republish stories from other internet sources without checking to see if they are true. They might have URLs that sound like legitimate news organizations, and they might even copy other news sites' design. Reporters and editors who report real news have a code of ethics that includes using reputable sources, checking facts, and getting comments from people on both sides of an issue.įake news outlets, on the other hand, are designed to deceive. What's fake and what's real?Ī “real news' outlet, such as a major newspaper or television network, might make mistakes, but it doesn't distribute false information on purpose. presidential election to prompting a man to open fire at a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. “Fake news' has been blamed for everything from swaying the U.S. Now, though, the line between “fake news' and “real news' can seem awfully blurry. Just a few years ago, “fake news' was something you'd find in supermarket tabloids.

Fake news propaganda and plain old lies