Bob Sirott's One More Thing about Sandy photos on social media - My50 Chicago - Television - WPWR

One more thing, about social media in crisis.

During the storm and its aftermath in the northeast, sharing information and communicating on-line has been invaluable--especially for those without power. But, undermining the credibility of Twitter and Facebook is the rampant spread of fake Sandy photos.

SEE: Fake Hurricane Sandy pictures spread on the Internet

The image of the honor guard keeping watch at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier despite the hurricane went viral this week. The only problem---the picture was taken on a rainy day in September. Hundreds of thousands on Facebook were fooled. So was the Washington Post, Daily Beast, and NPR.

The picture of the Empire State Building has been re-tweeted thousands of times since Sandy hit, but it was actually taken last year during a New York tornado warning and appeared in a Wall Street Journal article.

This scene of a flooded McDonalds has fooled people on Instagram. It has nothing to do with Sandy either. In fact, it's not even real. It's from a video that was part of a French art show.

Pictures weren't the only bits of fakery in cyberspace this week. Early reports on cable news of three feet of water flooding the New York stock exchange were the result of tweets based on misinformation from a weather service chat bulletin board.

Another tweet that was re-tweeted and made it on the air regarding windows being blown out at Rockefeller Center was also false.

It's the era of citizen journalists, getting more news quicker. And more hoaxes more often.