Unlimited access to information online and the freedom to post almost anything on social media sites is triggering an increase in false news stories and it's worse as people believe whatever they see on the internet in most cases, often leading these stories to trend on the social media.
One such is the image of an impala under attack from a group of cheetahs that was accompanied by a story that mentioned the photographer slipping into depression from the image. The story said that the impala and her two fawns were chased by cheetahs but the mother gave herself to cheetahs so that her fawns survive and was looking at them before being mauled.
The image went viral on social media as people shed tears for the impala and described it as a symbol of a mother’s love. But it turns out that while the image is real, the story around it is just another fake tale on the internet.
The photographer Allison Buttigieg from Finland said that neither was she depressed nor did the image receive a “picture of the decade” award as claimed on social media. She said that the story is about motherhood but that of the cheetah who was teaching her cubs to kill prey.
The calm look which got the impala labelled as a martyr on social media was actually from shock and fear. She described the act as rude and hurtful, even though people steal images all the time on social media.
