Spiders caught in a web of Internet lies

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - It's no secret that the internet and social media fuel rampant spread of misinformation in many areas of life. A collective of researchers, including Catherine Scott , Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill University's Lyman Lab, have explored this phenomenon as it applies to news about spiders. The verdict? Don't blindly trust anything you read online about these eight-legged arthropods-or anything else for that matter-and always consider the source. -The quality of spider information in the global press is rather poor-errors and sensationalism are rampant,- says Stefano Mammola of the National Research Council, Verbania Pallanza, Italy, and University of Helsinki's Finnish Museum of Natural History. -Spider-related information in the press flows through a highly interconnected global network, and the spread of misinformation is driven by a limited number of key factors, the sensationalistic tone of an article being particularly important. Starting at the local level. Stefano Mammola said he was inspired to do the study initially based on general disappointment about the quality of spider-related newspaper articles in Italy.