Which is it?!

This headline came up in my news feed, from a very dubious source so I decided to investigate.

Headline after headline, many from identical sources, about how Walmart and Bank of America are either going to stop taking $1 bills or keep accepting them. The headlines read like a FUD article and I refuse to click through to read the details.

I can’t find a reputable news source for this story so I’m assuming it’s fake news.

It shouldn’t be this easy to manipulate news feeds.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.deEnglish
    50·
    13 days ago

    Even without reading them I’m pretty sure that it goes like this:

    1. Idiot thinks that they will stop accepting the bills and posts the news.
    2. Several other idiots blindly copy those articles.
    3. Person with more than two braincells actually checks what’s going on and thus posts the reduction to mitigate the harm.
    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      13 days ago

      I think step 2 might be done by AI now instead of humans, because AI can blindly copy articles faster.

      Step 4 would be AI blindly copying the person with more than two braincells, whcih is why there are duplicates of both versions.

      • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
        8·
        13 days ago

        Step 4 would be AI blindly copying the person with more than two braincells, whcih is why there are duplicates of both versions.

        Either that or it’s a syndicated story

        • BossDj@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          Yup, they blindly post whatever article because they all bought that article from the same source