April Fools' Day may not be that annoying this 2022, as some experts revealed that the hoax stories it creates could help people identify fake news.
A picture shows a selection of April Fool's Day newspaper reports in London on April 1, 2014. An independent Scotland would drive on the right, replace the queen's head on coins and bring in UN peacekeepers with purple berets -- if Britain's newspapers were to believed on April Fool's Day. The Scottish independence referendum on September 18.
Right now, disinformation is quite rampant on the internet. Fake information about the pandemic and other controversial events, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, continuously appears on many social media platforms and online websites.
Of course, there are many ways in which people can identify fake news from real ones. Now, April Fools' Day stories can be among them.
How To Use April Fools' Day as Fake News Identifier?
According to Forbes' latest report, two experts, Dr. Alistair Baron and his Ph.D. student Edward Dearden conducted a new deceptive language study.
Participant hold their laptops in front of an illuminated wall at the annual Chaos Computer Club (CCC) computer hackers' congress, called 29C3, on December 28, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3) attracts hundreds of participants worldwide annually to engage in workshops and lectures discussing the role of technology in society and its future.
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Their latest research came up with a constructive method to use April Fools' Day fake stories to identify disinformation on the internet.
They published their new study titled "April Fools hoax stories could offer clues to help identify 'fake news'" in Science Daily journal.
"April Fools hoaxes are very useful because they provide us with a verifiable body of deceptive texts," said Edward.
He explained that this allows people to identify the linguistic techniques used to make hoax stories as factual news.
The Ph.D. student added that people could get compare fake news with real ones more efficiently if they look at the language used in April Fools' Day stories.
Similarities of April Fools' Day Stories and Fake News
Based on the new study, April Fools' Day stories and fake news tend to have a less complex language. When it comes to reading, they have easier readability compared to real news published by legitimate sources.
Their sentences are also longer compared to factual articles or news. Aside from these, they also contain fewer dates, names, places, and other essential details that are commonly found in real ones.
You can view this link if you want to see further details about this new April Fools' Day study.
Back in 2021, TommyInnit was considered the greatest prankster after he faked his return during April Fools' Day.
Just recently, Google Maps received a Snake Easter Egg game on April Fools' Day 2019.
For more news updates about April Fools' Day and other popular annual customs, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: April Fools' Day 2018: Here Are Google's Pranks This Year
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Written by: Griffin Davis
