Recently, people received fake information about a Stimulus Payment of $2,600 that will reportedly be paid to the elderly in the United States.
As per this claim, people who are 65 years and above, those who are disabled, or those who are blind get funds from the government. Such payment is being presented as one that was made to address the rising cost of living after the impacts of COVID-19.
However, this information is Not Accurate. As of now, no official authorities have approved or declared this kind of stimulus. Most people have been misled by rumors of this payment, especially on different social media platforms.
Thus, it is crucial to focus on the etiology of this misinformation, the framework of the official counterclaims, and the ways to recognize such fake news not to contribute to the process.
$2,600 Stimulus Payment Coming To Seniors?
The lie about a $2,600 stimulus check to seniors has been disseminated through several avenues of social media sites, particularly Facebook and X.com, formally Twitter.
Since misinformation has been made to look very believable and desirable, people with good intentions pass the information on to their acquaintances, friends, associates, and so on, hence increasing the coverage of misinformation.
It seems to originate from fake news which is common with automated news generation systems responsible for generating sensational titles and news. Such articles are often not based on reporters’ top stories; they are, in fact, stories that are specifically designed to attract web traffic.
These artificially generated stories are once released to the public domain and then go viral on social sites. The architecture of these sites enables information sharing irrespective of the authenticity of the circulated information; in this case, political scandals can easily spread.
