Students surf the Internet during a media lesson at their school.
It is a common mistake: sharing something based on the headline without actually reading the link. If you spend a lot of time on social media, you have probably done this at least once.

But you are not alone. According to a study released in June by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute, 59 percent of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked. People share these articles after only reading the headline.

The first thing you can do to fight "fake news" is to actually read articles before sharing them. When you read them, pay attention to the following warning signs. There are fake news stories generated by both Democrat and Republican websites. The same rules apply to both.

Determine Whether The Article Is From A Trustworthy Website

ABC News, the television network, has a website at abcnews.go.com. And ABC News, the fake news site, can be found at abcnews.com.co.

The use of ".co" at the end is a strong clue you are looking at fake news. But there are other signs as well.

Check The "Contact Us" Page

Some fake news sites do not have any contact information. The fake "ABC News" does have a "contact us" page, but all it shows is a picture of a house in Topeka, Kansas. The real television network is based in New York City in a 13-story building.

Examine The Byline Of The Reporter And See Whether It Makes Sense

On the fake ABC News site there is an article claiming a protester was paid $3,500 to protest Donald Trump. It is supposedly written by Jimmy Rustling. "Dr. Jimmy Rustling has won many awards for excellence in writing," the site says, "including fourteen Peabody awards and a handful of Pulitzer Prizes." (Peabody awards and Pulitzer Prizes are the highest honors in journalism, and are very difficult to win.) Doesn't that seem strange?

Or that he "spends 12-15 hours each day teaching his adopted 8-year-old Syrian refugee daughter how to read and write"?

All of these details are signs that "Dr. Rustling" is not a real person.

Read The Article Closely

Many fake articles have made-up quotes that are hard to read without laughing. About midway through the article on the protest, there is a quote from the founder of Snopes, a site that proves certain news on the Internet is fake. He is quoted as saying he approves of the article. It also goes on to describe Snopes as "a website known for its biased opinions and inaccurate information they write about stories on the internet." It is like a weird inside joke. In readers' minds, it should raise immediate red flags.

Scrutinize The Sources

Sometimes fake articles are based on merely a tweet. For example, a fake news story said anti-Trump people were being driven by bus to protest at events. That would have been shocking because it could make the protests seem bigger or more popular than they actually were – but it was not true. As The New York Times found, this story started with a single false tweet. The man who tweeted it had just 40 followers.

Another fake story said that Trump gave food to police officers who were watching protests in Chicago. This one was also started with a tweet – by a man who was not even there. He was just passing along what he had heard from his "friends." He also had a locked account, making the "news" very suspicious.

Few real news stories start with a single tweet. Most real stories have plenty of other sources of information, too. If the article has no links to sources, you are likely reading fake news.

Look At The Ads

Too many pop-up ads or other advertising on a news site means you should handle the story with care. Another bad sign is a bunch of ads or links designed to be clicked. For example, fake news sites often have many links about wild celebrity scandals on them. You do not usually find stories like this on real news sites.

Use Search Engines To Double-Check

A simple Google search often will quickly tell you if the news you are reading is fake. Snopes has put together a guide to fake news sites, which lets you check the articles you read. A website called RealorSatire.com is another way to see if an article is truthful. It allows you to post the URL of any article and will quickly tell you if the article comes from a fake or unfair news website.

Stopping the spread of fake news begins with you, the reader. If it seems too crazy to be true, it probably is. Please think before you share.

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