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Please Don't Get Your News from Your Cousin's Friend on Facebook

Hey--

Please Don't Get Your News from Your Cousin's Friend on Facebook.

That's pretty much it.

I know you can't really trust a lot of news sources right now, but if you see someone say something like "Oh my god, they set a Waffle House on fire" and you live in Rhode Island, where we don't have Waffle Houses, mayyyybe push back on that?

Ask to see photos.
Ask to see videos.
Ask for proof.

Don't worry about offending someone by implying you think they're exaggerating or they've gotten the wrong information.

Everybody gets stuff wrong, especially when they're anxious or panicked, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to help people out by alerting them to something, but when things catch on on social media, it has real world consequences.

It creates more noise that can drown out real threats and things people need to know.

Here in Rhode Island on Tuesday I heard everything from "They're targeting every Walgreens" to "The Cumberland Farms near my house is on fire" and when I went back to dig into some of this today, it turned out there's no evidence of any of it.  Just a lot of wild goose chases.

If you can't get good verification of something, you shouldn't be sharing it.

If you heard it on a police scanner, that also doesn't mean it's a thing.  It could be people calling in false tips or false reports, and police are just checking it out.  And, if it isn't already obvious, police can say things over scanners that turn out not to be true.

That's my PSA for the day, and if anybody would like to build a Waffle House in Rhode Island, I'd be happy to invest.

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