10 tips to detect fake news on Instagram and TikTok
The Girona Adolescent Council, based on two workshops on fake news with the ARA (Argentine Association of Young People), has developed a guide on disinformation on social media.
Workshop on fake news taught by journalist and ARA delegate in Girona, Mariona Ferrer, at the Centro Cultural la Mercè with the city's Adolescent Council.David Borrat
Consell d'Adolescents de Girona*
06/06/2025
6 min
GironaNovember 9, 2024. Argentina. Christian Martin, European correspondent for La Nación+ (LN+), reporting from the United Kingdom, talks about the floods of Cadaqués with a false image. Instead of showing on-screen photos of cars crammed into the riverbank, the Argentine news program depicts the downpours with the Onyar River, at the height of Girona's iconic colorful houses, filled with cars swept away by the force of the river. What Argentines perceived as just another piece of news, for Girona residents—when the video spread on social media—was a demonstration of the extent to which images generated by artificial intelligence can alter our perception of reality and generate misinformation.
Screenshot of the fake image spread by the Argentine television channel LN+ to discuss the Cadaqués floods.ARAA real image of the Cadaqués stream released by the firefighters, with around thirty cars crammed under a bridge.BOMBERS
In this case, the Girona Adolescent Council, together with ARA, Girona City Council, and UNICEF, launched a participatory workshop on the right to information and fake news. But what we quickly realized was that the Argentine television video hadn't reached us through social media, but rather through social networks. WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become the new generations' habitual ways of consuming information. According to data from the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), 83% of young people between the ages of 18 and 34 get their information through social networks.
The portrait painted by a study of the Mediterranean Journal of Communication It goes further: there is a growing interest in information among the young people surveyed between 15 and 24 years old, but they do not obtain it through traditional media, but rather through social networks. Instagram and WhatsApp are the most used (90% of those surveyed), followed by TikTok (80%), which has seen strong growth in terms of information consumption.
For years, young people have been trained to discriminate against rumors, misinformation, and fake news, but the examples are usually information that appears in traditional media. Therefore, as adolescents between 10 and 12 years old who are starting to use mobile phones, they have taken on the challenge of giving 10 tips on how to detect them on social networks, which is where they usually get their information.
The first clue to spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Look at the comments.David Borrat
1.
See the comments
Before sharing any video, it's best to check the comments, as it helps you compare the information with what other people know. For example, if someone posts a video saying that Girona is being destroyed and you look at the comments, people on the other side of the world might believe it's true because they don't know the city, but a Girona resident might make it clear that it's a lie.
Second tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Don't share if you're not sure.David Borrat
2.
Don't share if you're not clear about it.
Don't share the news if you're not sure it's real, because this is what fuels these fake sources. We want to give you an example of how sharing false information affects you. In TikTok videos, they often say we're sharing it with friends because it gets the person in question more views and, in turn, more money. But if we're not sure that the information is true, we're spreading rumors, falsehoods, or misinformation.
The third tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Use common sense.David Borrat
3.
Beware of alarming headlines: listen to common sense
Does the information have an alarming title, or is it very far-fetched? clickbait When it comes to a headline designed to get clicks and gain views. And most of the time, it doesn't offer the information promised or doesn't justify it properly. Impact generates audiences, but not always adequate and truthful information.
Fourth tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Look for spelling mistakes.David Borrat
4.
Check for spelling mistakes
A classic that never fails, although artificial intelligence is making it increasingly rare. Is the punctuation correct? Are there spelling, grammatical, or syntax errors? If there are, be suspicious. It could be information compiled too quickly to generate an audience, or it could contain disjointed information taken from different sources or poorly translated.
5.
Detect if the videos or images are of good quality
If the images are of poor quality, with short videos and audios, it can give us clues that it is a deepfake Generated with artificial intelligence. That is, a video is being created with altered faces and voices of its subjects to prove a piece of information. This is the extreme of fake news, but we can also find that a piece of information lacks an image to corroborate what is being said, or that the images or videos are out of context or do not correspond to what the speaker or the text says, in order to achieve another informative purpose.
Sixth tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Check the facts.David Borrat
6.
Contrast the data
Journalists always ask themselves a question when reading a piece of news that catches their attention: Who's saying this? Where does the news come from? The key to any piece of news is knowing the source and, once known, being able to verify it. If a video doesn't quite add up, we can search on search engines to see if the information it mentions, especially regarding immigration issues, has been published by an official agency or a mainstream media outlet. If we can't find that information or source, it's highly likely to be fake news.
7.
See if it's made with AI
Look at the way the news is written and think about whether a human could write it in a similar way. Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly difficult to discover. The lack of AI is another reason to quarantine information.
Eighth tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Read the full article.David Borrat
8.
Read or watch the entire news story
Watching five seconds of a video isn't the same as watching the entire video. The beginning of an explanation can be very compelling, but the arguments can fall flat later. It's vital to understand whether information is false or not by reading the entire story and analyzing its context. We often focus only on the headlines or the first few seconds of a video. reel On Instagram, for example, they're designed to engage, build an audience, and create a following. But they may lose quality later.
The ninth tip for spotting fake news on social media, according to the Girona Teen Council: Check the source.David Borrat
9.
Check the reliability of the transmitter
It's one thing to compare the sources of information, and another to verify the reliability of the source. Traditionally, we would judge whether the media outlet in question is reliable and trustworthy. But in this era, when many influencers have moved on to reporting, it's not always easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. If a communicator shares information that's particularly striking and doesn't add up, check through search engines to see if you're featured in other, more well-known media outlets. Try, whenever possible, to verify and compare it. If it's not correct: report it or leave it in the comments so that false information doesn't spread.
Tenth tip for fighting fake news: Consult news outlets.David Borrat
10.
Spaces against fake news
To prevent fake news It is better to look for information from reliable sources, such as the spaces that have proliferated in recent years, which are dedicated to doing what is called fact-checking: check that the data being said is real.
According to the non-profit organization First Draft, as listed in the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) guide, there are seven types of false information:
• Satire or parody: they do not seek to cause any harm or deception.
• Deceptive content: Information is used deceptively to incriminate someone.
• Fake content: information that supplants original and genuine sources.
• Fabricated content: information that is primarily false, designed to deceive and harm.
• False connection: when the headlines, images, or captions of the data do not confirm their content.
• False content: When the original content is disseminated with false or misleading background information.
• Manipulated content: When the original information or images are manipulated to mislead.
Teenagers attending the workshop on fake news organized by the newspaper ARA and Girona City Council with the city's Teen Council.David BorratTeenagers completing the workshop challenge.David Borrat
The Adolescent Council, an organization to transform Girona
The Girona Adolescent Council is a citizen participation project organized through the involvement of boys and girls from secondary schools and colleges in issues of interest to them and the city. It meets once a month, outside of school hours, and is made up of representatives chosen by the first and second year ESO class groups. The goal is to be a body that allows Girona adolescents to express their ideas and propose concrete actions to transform the city, thus exercising their right to participate.
During the 2024-2025 academic year, the Adolescent Council held two workshops with the ARA (Argentine National Association of Public Education) on fake news and misinformation, led by Mariona Ferrer y Fornells, journalist and the newspaper's representative in Girona. The focus was not on traditional media, but rather on social media, given that 83% of young people get their information primarily through TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
*15 students from 8 Girona schools, in their first and second years of compulsory secondary education, participated in the development of this guide during the 2024-2025 academic year:
Zainoune Abdine, Jaume Vicens Vives
Cristina Arbusé Cabezas, Marists of Gerona
Laila Badi, Santiago Sobrequés and Vidal
Valentina Borrell, Ermesenda
Paloma Duque Serna, Jaume Vicens Vives
Ingrid Escobar, Montilivi
Txell Escobar Ayats, Santiago Sobrequés and Vidal
Martí Gallardo, Vedruna Gerona
Ona Juan Roig, Carlos Rahola
Arij Mesly, Ermesenda (Can Prunell)
Kira Nadal Martínez, Jaume Vicens Vives
Gabriel Pérez, Santiago Sobrequés and Vidal
Lucia Ruta, Montilivi
Lidia Silvas Palomo, FEDAC San Narciso
Guillem Vidal, Santiago Sobrequés and Vidal
Workshop on fake news taught by Mariona Ferrer, from the newspaper ARA, at the La Mercè cultural center with the Girona Adolescent Council.David Borrat
A supplement to the ARA newspaper written by teenagers on the right to information
This guide, created by the Girona Adolescent Council, is part of the Diari dels Nens project, which the ARA (National Association of Children) has been promoting since 2013 every November 20th, coinciding with the International Day of the Rights of the Child. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child of November 20, 1989, every child must have the right to access appropriate information. Specifically, the convention establishes that "the media play an important role in the dissemination of information intended for children, which aims to promote their moral well-being, knowledge and understanding among peoples, and which respects the child's culture." It also states that "it is the State's obligation to take promotional measures in this regard and to protect children from all information and material harmful to their well-being."
Based on this premise and the fact that the theme of the 2024 edition was "Technology and Digitalization," with a special focus on the use of screens in childhood and adolescence, ARA and UNICEF agreed that in the 2025 edition, together with Girona's educational centers, a special focus would be given to schools in Girona. In the workshops with the Adolescent Council, we asked ourselves how we get our information, we talked about the work of journalists, and how we detect fake news. The published report is the result of group and collaborative work to develop a guide written by the adolescents themselves.
Until now, the November 20th editions of the Children's Diary had different children draw the diary pages. In this edition, we're going one step further and, taking advantage of the fact that it falls on a Thursday, when the Girona Regions supplement is published, the teenagers themselves will write the content for these pages.