Conspiracy theories are nothing new – some surface with every important event, whilst others stem from pure boredom. And although it may be easy to spot one in a face-to-face conversation, identifying conspiracies online is a lot harder.
How can you tell if an idea circling the net is genuine or fake? 4Chan might have the answer. Poynter's Daniel Funke explains that because conspiracies very often bubble up on the message board site, it is a good place to search when covering them.
He offers a step-by-guide to identifying sources of posts and their authenticity and noting the cyclical nature of conspiracy theories, amongst other pointers.
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