Technology changes quickly! The blue verification mark on Twitter once indicated the authenticity of high-profile accounts, but recent changes have led to fake accounts and the escalated spread of disinformation.
Misinformation and disinformation spreads through social media as people share content without necessarily questioning if it's accurate or true. We want to trust our friends, but it is also easy to share content without reading beyond a headline. The information we're exposed to on a daily basis is also largely influenced by who our friends are and what sub-section of social media we spend time in.
Native advertising is advertising that is designed to look like the normal content of a publication or platform. On social media, on first glance it might look like something a friend might share. But Twitter and Facebook have clear labels on native advertising that make it easy to identify.
"Sponsored" or "promoted" content may come from things that you or your friends already follow, or from something you don't but that algorithms say you might be interested in. It's up to you to identify and evaluate the content--maybe it's marketing a product or promoting an idea.
Below are some examples of native advertisements.
Clicking on the little arrow at the upper right corner of a post confirms that it is an ad, rather than an ordinary post. ALA wants to make sure its Facebook followers see it, to encourage political action -- a different kind of ad than simply marketing a product.
