03
What's the date?
A true story from five years ago can become today's fake news.
Why it's a trap
It's one of the web's most efficient recycling schemes: nothing to invent, nothing to fake. Take an authentic piece of content — a flood filmed years ago, an outdated alert, an old statement — and repost it today, without a date. Emotion does the rest.
The trap cuts both ways: true-but-old content may have become false (the rule changed, the product was recalled, the alert was lifted)… or may still be perfectly valid. The date is what settles it — not the look of the message.
The moves
- Look for a date: the publication date, and the date of the facts. They are often two different dates.
- No visible date? Search the message's keywords: the first publication usually surfaces fast.
- For a picture or a video, a reverse image search shows when it has circulated before.
- Before sharing an alert or an instruction, ask: is it still current, here and now?
The classic trap
“Look what's happening RIGHT NOW on the coast!” — the video is spectacular, black sky, huge waves. The same video already circulated during a storm years earlier. The sea was real — the “right now” was not.
Keep in mind
Undated information can be made to say anything.
Practise this reflex
Cases in the library train precisely this reflex:
- What should you do? (Health & miracle cures)
- What are the traps here? (Health & miracle cures)
- What's the right response? (Health & miracle cures)