Fake News Signals from Website Addresses
/Here are some tips for determining if a story is likely reliable. An organization does not need to tick off all these qualifiers in order to be considered authentic and accurate, but the more you see red flags pop up, the more a healthy skepticism is in order.
38. DOT-GOV. Does the site have a dot-gov address? Generally, data provided by government organizations are more trustworthy. Official news agencies are often the starting place for establishing the truth of a matter.
39. DOT-EDU. Does the site have a dot-edu address? Generally, data provided by university research laboratories are reliable.
40. LO & DOT-CO. Websites ending with odd letters like “lo” (such as “Newslo”) or “.co” could be a red flag for fake news sites. For instance, abcnews.com.co is not the actual URL (web address) for the real ABC News. What looks like an .edu domain, followed by .co or “lo” is likely a fake or deceptive site. Sites like Clone Zone make this easy to do.
41. COM.COM. Another way to trick readers is to add a “com” so the web address almost looks right. For instance, “USATodaycom.com.”
42. PERSONAL BLOGS. A domain such as “.wordpress” or “blogger” usually signifies it’s a personal blog rather than a news source.
43. COUNTRY-CODE TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS. The end of some website addresses is a clue to the site’s originating country. For instance, “dot-au” means the site is based in Australia, and “dot-ng” means the site is based in Nigeria. Suppose you find a supposed article about your community on a website coming from a country far away. In that case, it probably means the writer isn’t likely to have access to the necessary sources to write a competent story.
44. ODD NAMES. Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.