Fact, fake or fool: A fiendish news quiz

By THE DATA TEAM

SEPARATING fact from fiction used to be a relatively straightforward task. Then came “fake news”. In recent years the advent of social media has made it far easier to spread lies about current events online, benefiting both shadowy political actors advancing agendas and unscrupulous entrepreneurs hoping to reap advertising revenues. Newspapers and independent verification groups have responded quickly with sites dedicated to verifying or debunking widely disseminated claims—but soon enough, fake fact-checkers emerged as well, hoping to muddy the waters. In response to the problem, Facebook is spearheading a $14m “News Integrity Initiative”, and the OECD wants children to be taught how to spot fake news.

Identifying real stories may be particularly difficult at this time of year: in addition to the standard diet of fake articles, April Fools’ Day inspires playful journalists to fabricate tales of politicians’ mishaps or the launch of insane-sounding gadgets. Can you distinguish the news, scams and harmless pranks in our quiz?