In March 2024, earned media insights platform Memo examined how social media engagement relates to content readership and whether more social media shares and comments leads to more people actually reading the posts. The key finding: they don’t.

Across the board, we like and share what we haven’t even read. That includes misinformation, disinformation, and other forms of fake news.

We’re witnessing this now in Australia in the wake of the Bondi Junction knife attacks.

The people of Australia are turmoil-stricken.

Last Saturday, 13 February 2024, a 40 year-old man went on a rampage through an upmarket Sydney shopping centre, killing six and hospitalising at least 12 others, some with life threatening injuries.

The killing spree was only brought to a halt when the perpetrator was shot dead by an heroic police officer.

While the investigation is still in the very early stages, the New South Wales Police has been praised for its handling of the release of information.

However, as the names and faces of those who were killed and injured are published, the spread of misinformation and disinformation is as explosive as the shots fired by the arresting officer.

Somehow, so many people are already convinced they know the motive, mind, and malice of the murderer.

Even LinkedIn contains a barrage of misleading, false, ignorant, presumptive, and conspiring posts about the attacks and the perpetrator.

The originators of these posts are being spurred on by ‘likes’. Yet, research shows there’s no clear correlation between social engagement and actual readers.

In other words, we ‘like’ what we haven’t even read.

That has serious implications.

We are individually and collectively responsible for arresting the spread of fake news.

Having built my career in corporate and marketing communications, I understand the power of words.

At times like this, we would all benefit from considering the impact of our actions – even actions as seemingly innocuous as a ‘like’.

As the American author Fran Lebowitz famously quipped, “Think before you speak. Read before you think.”

A version of this opinion editorial first appeared in The Australian Financial Review on 16 April 2024.