The proliferation of new digital platforms has created an abundance of information sources. As of 2017, 93 percent of Americans said they receive news online. This increased access to news sources has also led to the dissemination of disinformation and hoaxes, aka “fake news.” This issue is especially important with the 2020 political campaigns already underway.
Journalist Benjamin Wittes suggests these six steps consumers can take to prevent the spread of political disinformation on social media:
- Pause a moment before you share something on social media to ask whether you are being someone’s dupe and whether you mind.
- Don’t share content you haven’t actually read. The headline is not the article. Know exactly what you are sharing.
- Don’t share content if you don’t know where it came from. Most people wouldn’t go on television and broadcast something they heard from a random person on the street. But that is exactly what you’re doing when you retweet.
- Pause before sharing attacks on people. Ask yourself whether you’re adding signal or noise. Ask yourself why this person is being attacked, and ask yourself whose interests you are serving by turning up the amplifiers on the attack.
- Edited video is dangerous stuff. Every time there’s a cut, there is the possibility that someone has removed something. Ask if you have enough context to evaluate the shared material and whether you know and trust the entity or person that made the cuts.
- All of this boils down to something we might call the “finding candy on the street” rule. If you found candy on the street, you wouldn’t eat it. If someone gave you candy on the street, you might eat it depending on what it was and who gave it to you. Information is like candy obtained in public. Ask yourself this question: if this were candy and I were walking down the street, would I eat this? And would I give it to my kids and friends?
