"... every one of us is responsible for fact-checking our feeds, and crying foul when we see a foul"

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One of the comments:  ... We should all follow the "THINK" principle when we use social media - T: Is it true?, H- Is it helpful?, I- Is it inspiring, N- Is it necessary?, K-Is it kind? If the answer is no to any of these questions, perhaps you should keep it to yourself.
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Think Before You Share
That conspiracy video going around Facebook is a lie.
By Scott Huler, June 9, 2014

[major snippage]

My point is straightforward but urgent: This is the front line against viciousness and madness and anti-science and anti-reason. When people post slanderous, malevolent lies, if you forward them without censure, then you are abetting slanderous, malevolent lies. Forget that line on so many people’s Twitter page about retweets not constituting endorsement. Sorry, wrong. If you share something on any social medium, you’re saying, overtly, that you approve of it being shared. That you think it’s worth people’s time. That its point is either valid or worthy of consideration.

We need to adopt a new ethic. The entire point of the Internet is that anything can be put out there, without research or editing or fact-checking. That means every one of us is responsible for fact-checking our feeds, and crying foul when we see a foul. You share it, you stand behind it. Seeing something vaguely worth wondering about (if you don’t think about it too hard), then pressing share, is a losing strategy. You’re not allowed to turn off your judgment, even for a second. You’re not allowed to shrug and say, “Who knows?” and let someone else worry about it. That’s how we got into this mess.

So think—and above all check—before you share. If it’s a lie, by perpetuating it you claim at least a portion of the responsibility. Think about it. We don’t have 2 million hits a week to spare.
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