Somehow we still just don't get it. It's 2021 and I can't believe I need to say this. Just because something written online doesn't mean it's true. It happens all the damn time. We have no problems reading a headline or skimming a story and sharing it without any cares as to whether or not it's factual.

It didn't take long for social media from El Pasoans to be flooded with "stories" claiming there was an active shooter as Cielo Vista Mall this past weekend. Just take a look at Reddit. Wonderful_Awareness1 posted the following:

Shooting

 

There was a fight at Cielo Vista. A gun was pulled out

Edit: There was no active shooter! It was a YouTube named DannyDuncan69, he possibility got into a fought and then witnesses started yelling “active shooter”

That's great you can come back through with an edit after the fact, but how about you pump the brakes on making any claim before you know it to be true. Are people that desperate to 'be the first'? You're going to break the big story? Or is this just laziness? Combination of both?

The misinformation doesn't stop there. The thread continues with people reacting to the "news" that it was a prank by Danny Duncan and that he needs to be arrested. Someone even chimes in with a comment about how Duncan denied that it was a prank but they just had to put their two cents in at the end...

Nope, someone yelling "active shooter". The YouTuber says it wasn't him but he and his entourage are known for pulling "pranks" like that

This still shouldn't come as much of a shock though because it was just a few months ago we watched hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans storm the Capitol Building because of false information being spewed by the former President of the United States.

Misinformation has always been spread. Stop and think about the amount of things you've heard from your friends that ended up not being true. It's the phone game. Someone whispers something to one person, and you do that enough times, it's a completely different message by the time it comes back around.

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