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  • How TikTok’s Algorithm Can Spread Misinformation During Breaking News Events

    Mandy Torkelson

    TikTok is a very popular form of social media and many people use TikTok as a source for “news” for natural disasters, public emergencies, and elections. Information spreads quickly on TikTok and can mislead people and cause chaos. Teaching people how to manage and deal with misinformation will help reduce the harm misinformation causes.

    My target audience is College Students age 18-24 who are the main age range that use TikTok for information and news. This age group is ideal because they are heavy users of TikTok and other short-form video platforms. They are often in a stage of life where they are developing critical media literacy skills and they are most likely to see information first and spread it without fact checking before engaging with a post.

    https://www.captechu.edu/blog/tiktok-and-war-misinformation

    TikTok’s Role in Spreading Misinformation: Users post videos and short clips to draw attention and views. Most things are posted with the intent of getting people to interact and share the content. TikTok is a form of income for many users on the app, the more popular a video is the more interactions through comments, likes, and shares there are. This benefits the creator directly. Teens and young adults are aware of what gets people going and what interests people. You hear “rage bait” a lot nowadays. Rage bait is online content including videos, comments, and posts. Its designed to deliberately provoke anger and strong reactions to gain attention, engagement, and revenue.

    https://www.tiktok.com/discover/rage-bait-example?lang=en

    There are rage baiting topics such as politics and conspiracy theories that get people going on TikTok, this is where misinformation starts coming in to the picture, lies start to be told to make people angry and people start to spread this false propaganda and believe it. It can be extremely negative and lead to many people disputing with one another online.

    Then there are rage baiting trends like telling football fans that “Taylor put Travis on the map”, or telling athletes “Do you wish you were more athletic” telling people these things would make them so mad and you would secretly record their reactions and upload it for people to laugh at. Its important to understand that there are different types of “Rage baiting”. And the intent isn’t always harmful.

    TikTok is a main source for news. When the Titanic submersible imploded videos and conspiracies were all over TikTok. People were posting clips of sounds underwater saying that they heard the people in the submersible asking for help and saying they are trapped. Just for us later to find out that they were never stuck or asking for help and the submersible imploded and they died right away. Nowadays with AI its hard to tell what is real and what is fake. Using AI to fool people and gain traction has become very popular on TikTok.

    Deceptive Trends: The Societal Impact of Disinformation on TikTok

    Governments around the world have banned TikTok due to propaganda, manipulative content, hate speech, and data privacy. During presidential elections many people get information about candidates or spread information about candidates to try and sway people one way. In the 2024 election in Indonesia TikTok was the most powerful platform in helping president elect Prabowo Subianto win his campaign. TikTok has become a primary outlet for candidates to reach new and existing audiences. On one hand its smart for these canditdates to use an app like TikTok, you are engaging with the young voters who go on this app for information, It’s a great way to get more voters especially the young age range of new voters. Once politicians started to create accounts there started to be a divide on TikTok. There was shade thrown at each side of the political party and videos posted by interns using clips of the other candidate in a bad light.

    When you hear someone you like talk badly about another person it’s easy for you to agree with them before you fact check to see if what they are saying is true or not. Research is so important, believing a he said she said is not beneficial and leads to the spread of misinformation.

    Many people can argue that this is good that teenagers and young adults are getting information about news and big events going on in the world. But with how misinformation is spreading on TikTok it’s important to be aware of the source and the information before spreading it further. I use TikTok more than any app on my phone and I was subject to believe a lot of the news that I see online, Now with this thought of fake news, AI, Misinformation in mind I do a lot more research online when I see a post before I believe it right away. I keep in mind that most times people post things to generate revenue and stir the pot, and that they don’t have the viewers best intentions at heart. While this can be true on almost any social media app, TikTok is the most used app in the age range of 18-24, this is the age range of people that are still learning media literacy skills and are quick to believe things without doing their research.

    This College level audience has the skills to read articles and do deep dives to find the correct sources needed to feel confident that a post, video, or article is factual.

    https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/tiktok-and-mental-health-how-do-you-decipher-accurate-information

    Questions to ask: Who is giving the advice or posting? What is their background? Are they a reliable source? Are they backing up their ideas and thoughts with data?

    If we took time out of our days to do some research and educate others on how to stop the spread of misinformation users on TikTok and other social medias would benefit tremendously.

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    Mandy Torkelson

  • Assessing current platforms’ attempts to curve misinformation

    Mandy Torkelson

    My two most used social media platforms are TikTok and Instagram I thought it would be interesting to dive into how they curb misinformation and the efforts they go through to decrease misinformation on their platforms

    TikTok: An important tool TikTok has is its automated moderation system that scans for violations of the platform’s community guidelines, if the content gets flagged it will stop others from seeing it while it is being reviewed by content moderators who will evaluate the content that was posted with more context and precision. From April-June 2021 more than 81 Million TikToks were removed from violating these guidelines.

    With such a large platform like TikTok it is almost impossible to eliminate misinformation completely though TikTok has a responsibility to keep misinformation under control otherwise it can spread and overtake the entire app. https://www.captechu.edu/blog/tiktok-and-war-misinformation

    Earlier this year In January TikTok was at risk of being banned in the United States, it was taken down for a day and then later was put back up. The United States Government wanted to ban the app that nearly 170 million users in the United States were using due to concerns the Chinese government was stealing our information. TikTok has maintained that no U.S user data has or would be shared and that banning the app violates the constitutions first amendment rights. There was a thought that China would use TikTok to influence American opinion by promoting content that undermine democratic processes. This was all over the news and misinformation was quickly spread throughout the United States. I had friends that were scared to use the app because they thought that they were being watched and that their information was being stolen. It was important for TikTok owners to come forward and put an end to this spread of misinformation and comfort those who believed they were using an app that was deemed “unsafe” https://www.ohio.edu/news/2025/01/banning-tiktok-turning-point-u-s-data-security-or-threat-free-speech

    Congress wanted to pass a bill to get foreign election misinformation off of social media. If TikTok were to get sold to domestic owners like they wanted. Th site would be the same and misinformation would still be just as prominent as it was under previous TikTok owners. The importance of getting new owners for the popular app was to get information away from U.S users which was on of the main purposes of the ban. But what would really change if there were new owners? The app would be the same and misinformation would still be spread at the same rate.

    During the election posts were getting taken down for no reason, they would get taken down just because it was a view or take that was controversial, its important that we highlight getting rid of misinformation not opinions. It violates the first amendment and how the app should be used.

    Tiktok is looking to advance AI transparency and literacy. They are expanding auto-labeling to AIGC created on other platforms by launching the ability to read content credentials which would directly help stop the spread of misinformation

    Instagram: On the instagram website help center they have many different tools and information on how to detect misinformation and reduce the spread of fake news. When you go on instagram and view a post there is a button to report the content. You can report fake posts and get them taken down to help decrease the spread of misinformation. Click Report and then false information, this tool is super helpful for all of the instagram users across the world.

    An import thing to remember when looking at a post or an account is to acknowledge where the post is coming from is it a reliable source or is it a source that is known for parody’s and whether the tone suggests its a joke and is for fun. A common account I view is MLBONFOX this is where I see baseball posts and where crazy trades and signings get posted, a popular parody account is MLBONFAX its a account that post fake trades and AI voiced player interviews and there are times I read it and think its the real account and I have to remember to look at the username and account before I go sending it to family and friends and spreading misinformation.

    MLBONFAX was recently taken down https://www.mlbonfax.com/post/top-11-alleged-reasons-mlbonfax-got-banned-from-instagram Instagram took action to get this fake sports account taken down. This is where the importance of using the report button and doing research to help stop the spread of misinformation is super important, It leads to getting accounts like these taken down.

    This summer on instagram I was constantly getting my instagram accounts copied with people trying to pretend to be me, they would use the same username as my personal account except they would change it by adding a period or an extra letter, something that wasn’t super noticeable and they would use my same profile picture and bio and go and follow people I follow and try to convince them I made a new account. I was able to report it and get it taken down within minutes.

    These report tools that TikTok and Instagram have are super important in curbing misinformation and overall helping stop the spread of fake news on these large and popular social media platforms.

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    Mandy Torkelson

  • Identifying New Item and Secret Menu Posts Online

    Mandy Torkelson

    It’s no secret that restaurants have a “Secret Menu” for example in n out with their “animal style” fries and burgers that are not listed on the menu. A common thing I see online is people posting secret menu items for certain restaurants and later on I find out it was made up and it doesn’t exist. Im going to dive into how to determine when someone posts a secret menu item if it is legitimate or not.

    Recently It has been circulating that Taco Bell had released all of these different desserts. I had a friend try to order the caramel Apple Empanada and the worker looked at her like she was crazy. It goes to show that not everything we see online is accurate.

    1. Source: Its important to look at the source that posted about the menu items, was it a random person online or was it from the Taco Bell website? Was it someone posting that this is in the works and is going to come out or was it someone posting something they wish Taco Bell had and pretending that they do so other people see it and talk about it.
    2. Confirmation Bias: https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/06/can-you-spot-a-fake-photo-online-your-level-of-experience-online-matters-a-lot-more-than-contextual-clues/ This article mentions confirmation bias which is very important. It says if you agree with something you are more likely to believe it is true and when you disagree with something you are more likely to believe it is not true. In this case when viewing a new menu item or a secret menu item when it’s something you think looks good and you want to try you are more subject to believe it exists.
    3. Reverse Image search: If you go on google and search reverse image search it comes up with a spot to copy and paste and image where it then does a background check on the image and tells your more information on the image and where it origniated as well as giving you similar posts and photos to the original.

    4. Building on verification: https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/datajournalismcom/handbooks/Verification-Handbook-3.pdf The verification handbook has a lot of important tools for verifying a questioning images. They listed 10 important questions to think of;

    1. are you looking at the original version
    2. Do you know who captured the Photo
    3. Do you know where the photo was captured
    4. Do you know when the photo was captured
    5. DO you know why the photo was captured
    6. What Is it?
    7. What does it mean?
    8. Who made it?
    9. What does it show?
    10. What did it mean?

    for posts that are made up and edited online you want to think about who posted and as well as why and when.

    5. How widely and how long has it circulated: A big part of social media is reposting and sharing content. Its very easy for lies and misinformation to spread quick especially when its something small and silly like a fun new menu item. The more you can find online about it and the more information you see the more likely it is to be real. When you just see a picture that says new but you cant find the item anywhere online or see a physical picture or video of someone trying it, you then know its fake.

    We all love our new menu items and secret menu items but its not fun to try to order one and be told it doesnt exist. Hopefully these tools can be helpful when determining if a post is real or fake.

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  • Evaluating Misinformation Education Tools 

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    Mandy Torkelson

    News Literacy Projects RumorGuard: Teaches about the 5 credibilty factors to look out for when reading a post including, Authenticity, source, evidence, context and reasoning. Many posts are put out there to make people believe they are real and authentic, Rumor guard runs background checks to prove that posts are not reliable. I think this is a great tool for eradicating misinformation.

    On the article about Old photos recirculate after National Guard deployed in D.C. a reverse image search was used to prove that the photographs were not taken in August of 2025 like they said they were, the reverse image search showed that the photos were really taken in January of 2021 which means that Donald Trump was not president then and the article was using his name and talking about military presense which makes no sense since he was not president then. https://www.rumorguard.org/post/old-photos-recirculate-after-national-guard-deployed-in-d-c

    A big part of RumorGuard is credibilty in almost all of the stories I looked at, the word credibilty kept poping up. Was it posted by a credible source? Was it posted by who it says it was? A lot of times people use fake names, fake profiles, fake photos. RumorGuard gives and displays the tools used to bipass all of the misinformation.

    https://newslit.org/educators/resources/is-it-legit/?_gl=1*11f4u1*_gcl_au*OTI1ODE4ODUyLjE3NTcxMDY5OTM.*_ga*MTc3ODMzNDA4NS4xNzU3MTA2OTkz*_ga_E6LE2NXPWW*czE3NTcxMDY5OTMkbzEkZzEkdDE3NTcxMDg0ODAkajUyJGwwJGgw

    This website gives five steps for vetting a news source, these 5 steps are all great tools to determine the validity of a source. The first one is do a quick search which can be so overlooked, by doing a quick search for information on a news source majority of the time you can find other links and articles that help you determine if what you are reading is facts or made up.

    Overall, I really liked RumorGuard it gave a lot of links and helpful information for determining the validity of a source. It is super important to have the tools to set you up for sucess and feel confident that what you are reading and spreading is real information and I felt RumorGuard was perfect for that.

    I played the Fake it To Make it game where I created a site. I choose a name for the site and a logo and theme. It gave me a credibility score of 64/100 after I set up the website. I was given $50 to start and had to “purchase” themes and domains and logos the nicer ones would cost more and give more percentage towards the credibilty score of the website. I learned that a lot goes in to creating a website and posting a fake article. If you want it to look believable and fool people a lot more effort, time, and money needs to be put in.

    I Made it look credible to the best I could with the money given to me then went and found random articles and pressed the copied article button and then planted the article to get “views” Each time I would plant an article it would show how many views I got and then how much revenue I made off of the article.

    On one of the articles I planted I got 332 shares and made $3.14 this game I would say this is a pretty effective tool for teaching about misinformation, not as much as rumor guard was but this game gives you a clear idea of what a fake website looks like and how easy it is to copy articles and plant them for people to read and share.

    The most surprising thing to me was the money that gets generated from people viewing and sharing content, It goes to show that a lot of people that spread misinformation are in it for the money and talk that goes with it.

    Overall I think this game was effective in learning how to detect fake articles and was fun to mess around with and adjust the settings of credibilty.

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  • Media Day in the life

    Mandy Torkelson

    To start of the Blog post students are tasked to track their use of media for 24 hours I chose Friday to track my media. It’s interesting to see how much media is used throughout the day even just checking a text or reading a book or listening to music. Lets get into it!

    9:00 am: Pick up my phone after my 9:00 alarm goes off and check snapchat and text back my friends, horrible habit but I use snapchat a lot as a form of communication with friends instead of iMessage so this is how I respond to friends, then I switched between instagram and went down a rabbit hole on TikTok looking at videos about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelces engagement. https://www.tiktok.com/@stephwithdadeets/video/7542944774282661150?lang=en

    This lasted about an hour before I got up and went about my day

    11:00 am: My mom sends a series of old face book posts she had made of me and my sisters first day of school pictures to our family group chat on text

    11:15: I went to the gym and listened to Sabrina carpenters new album while walking on the treadmill https://open.spotify.com/album/1aqg30bNvLSWgShZgX4oop

    1:00 pm: went to the pool in my apartment complex and started reading the book the summer I turned pretty. Read pages 1-50

    3:00 pm: got back from the pool and lied down and watched Wednesday on Netflix. I was only half paying attention the beginning of this season has been pretty boring in my opinion

    7:00 pm: woke up after a long nap and texted with my mom about random stuff like how classes are going and what I was up to for the rest of the night

    8:00 pm: My friend Brooke called me and we FaceTimed for about 30 minutes and talked about the show the summer I turned pretty and discussed our opinions on the recent episode that came out earlier this week

    9:00 pm: Texted with my friend Emma and made plans to go over to her house and hangout and watch a movie with some friends

    9:30 pm: Left my apartment used maps for directions to get to my friends house because I am still trying to get used to directions and get used to how to get to places. Listened to Billie Eilish and Taylor swift on the way there, on Spotify.

    9:45 pm: Got to Emmas and started watching the new movie The Map that Leads To You staring Kj Appa and Madeline Cline. It was so bad. I was so excited to watch this movie because I love both those actors so a rom com staring them sounded great but it was so boring I barely payed attention. We talked through almost the entire movie

    10:30 pm: texted back and forth with my dad about the dodgers sweeping the reds and how it was the first time the reds had been swept by a team all season

    12:30 am: Used maps again to get directions to drive back to my apartment and listened to Olivia Rodrigo on spotify

    1:00 am: got ready for bed and scrolled on my fyp on TikTok and went through my dms on TikTok with my friends and watched all the videos they sent me throughout the day. My friends from home had sent me a bunch of tiktoks about the dust storm from earlier this week. They were shocked I experienced something like that since I am from California and have never seen something like that

    2:00 am: After scrolling for an hour I set my alarm for 10:00 am the next morning and went to bed.

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    Mandy Torkelson

    Ive always looked at my screen time on my phone but there is so much more that goes into it like face time calls and listening to music where you aren’t actively on your phone but its still a source of media consumption. I now realize how much media consumes me on a daily basis and what that looks like In my everyday life. This was super interesting!