Can I safeguard friends and family from disinformation?
The strategy is one-on-one, person-to-person, without the digital media.
It seems so simple, yet having a dialogue on a one-to-one, person-to-person level is the most powerful and effective tool: a conversation, not a confrontation.
It starts when we see people who believe disinformation as victims.
When we can speak to each other without smartphones, computers, or phones and have an interpersonal exchange of ideas and opinions, we may have a chance to reach that person under the spell of disinformation.
Yes, a spell of disinformation. It sounds cornball, but it’s apt.
Using electronic devices may be ineffective as it is too easy for that victim to terminate a conversation or a dialogue. Therefore, this technique has limitations.
The truth is, we cannot save everyone. We may only be able to help those open to listening and learning more.
But for those you can speak to online, Professor Besir Ceka of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, says simple corrections instead of complex explanations have the potential to slow the spread of disinformation.
Professor Ceka recommends that individuals dig deeper, check out the integrity of links, and ensure a social media post is inaccurate—not to take questionable posts or claims at face value.
Lastly, from the book Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden, there are inoculation techniques that can be effective with friends and family:
Steps to use in one-to-one disinformation rebuttal:
The more significant issue before us is the destruction of trust in institutions, sources of news and information, and between each other.
Author Lee McIntyre puts the consequences of disinformation into stark relief:
Fact-Based: A prebuttal using evidence and facts to dispute disinformation. Author van der Linden indicates it is most effective when disputing anything specific.
Technique-Based: remind whom you speak with that instrumentalists (or “bad actors”) employ loaded emotional messaging to trigger strong reactions, leaving individuals vulnerable to manipulation.
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Verify sources
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Encourage critical thinking
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Share reliable information
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Use fact-checking tools
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Educate about media literacy
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Be cautious with social media
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Promote diverse perspectives
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Facts first
Keep the facts simple and use trustworthy, verifiable sources. That is, sources that have a track record for veracity, thoroughness and accuracy.
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Name the myth
Alert whomever you’re engaged with about the myth in question. Keep the details about the myth brief.
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Reveal the manipulation
There is a how and a why the myth you’re discussing deliberately is misleading. It can be a form of manipulation or it could be a conspiracy
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Facts last
Restate the facts and present a rational description.
Want a bite? George Lakoff, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley devised the technique when debunking disinformation.
The Truth Sandwich is facts first and last, in a 4-layer approach:
Did you know you can even “prebunk” a mistruth?
One of the most effective “prebunking” efforts was the Russian plot to invade Ukraine in January, 2022. Russia had massed large numbers of troops and weaponry at Ukraine’s borders.
Although Russia had a long history of hiding and misdirecting it’s intentions, the alert to the world about the impending invasion of Ukraine focused the world’s attention.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, news readers were not surprised about the attack and were highly skeptical of Russia’s intentions to wipe out “fascism in Ukraine”.
This “prebunking” stayed the destabilization, confusion and demotivation of the rest of the world and motivated it to defend Ukraine.
Read the article on how Ukraine countered Russian propaganda here.
Yes, you can debunk a mistruth.
It’s called the Truth Sandwich.
Can I "debunk" a mistruth?
Its purpose is to induce emotional distress, disrupt logical thinking, create confusion and demotivation.
It’s not pretty. Disinformation is a severe mental health crisis for all ages and relationships.
The epidemic of disinformation is a phenomenon that affects everyone regardless of their digital or personal engagement.
When disinformation is experienced, that state of confusion contributes to anxiety, panic, depression, and emotional exhaustion. “Nonbelievers” of disinformation are perceived as enemies. Friendships become isolated, and relationships suffer from perceived nefarious intent and isolation. Those experiencing and consuming disinformation will find common cause in like-thinking groups that reflect and reinforce their information consumption.
The breakdown in trust itself is one of the casualties of exposure to disinformation.
You can read the American Psychological Association report here.
Disinformation affects all of us—whether it is shared, friended, and followed from our robust social media environment to exposure to television and radio media or the printed press. We’re exposed to thousands of messages daily where disinformation has a disturbing and tragic effect.
The objective is to stop disinformation early.
What are the psychological effects of disinformation?
According to the book Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden, manipulation has a framework of 6 key characteristics:
The discrediting of trustworthy, verifiable information resources by manipulators allows them to deny presented facts. In a national survey conducted by the author and academic assistants, the term, “Fake News” among conservatives is applied to news operations like The New York Times, CNN and AP. Ask liberals and progressives what they consider, “Fake News” tand they will apply it to politicians like Donald Trump or Republicans.
The next time you engage with a news article, reflect on the emotion you experience after reading it. Clickbait, where headlines loaded with emotional triggers hinge on fear and anger get more reaction, driving engagement and “likes”.
In addition, algorithms in social media increase the share content based on the number of “like” responses, amplifying the emotive content to a larger audience.
Behold: three Buzzfeed clickbait articles that are loaded with content designed to trigger emotional responses. The manipulative words and phrases truly ring out. Can you spot them? The shocking answers will devastate you!
If emotion is the trigger that destabilizes people’s rational thought process, polarization is the fallout that drives people apart.
Groups that once had a common interest or affinity become alienated, or to extreme, avowed enemies. It not only relates to friends, neighbors, family, co-workers or lovers; it affects larger organizations, most notably political parties.
A “fake expert” authority is the one of the foundation tools of manipulators. It was employed by tobacco companies for decades to invalidate the health risks of cigarette smoking.
Read the amazing, yet true story from fact-checker Snopes.
The most recent example occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when discredited medical “experts” made the false claim that the vaccine engineered to protect against the infection contained the coronavirus itself.
Read the FactCheck.org article about the people behind the COVID-19 disinformation campaign.
We covered it before, we’ll cover it again. Let’s consider the case of Edgar Maddison Welch, father of two from North Carolina.
In 2016, Edgar stormed into Comet Pizza in Washington, D.C., searching for an alleged pedophile ring run by “top” Democrats operating in the basement of the pizzeria.
There was a hitch in Edgar’s understanding. There is no basement at Comet Pizza. And there is no pedophile ring run out of the same pizza shop. It didn’t stop him from punctuating the moment, firing three rounds from his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle before his arrest.
Edgar was a victim of reading and believing a nefarious conspiracy involving a political party, a Presidential candidate and her staff, and a lone, innocent restaurant named Comet Pizza.
Conspiracists use themes or events that people are invested in to amplify or gain visibility for their theories. The theories all have predictable patterns. Some end in unfortunate outcomes for those who believe and act on them.
Read the AP story on the Pizzagate conspiracy.
Debunking a conspiracy is not enough. Giant tech and social media companies publicly claim due diligence in weeding out toxic or conspiratorial posts but in practice refuse to stop transmission of conspiracy theories through algorithms that favor sharing these stories on their platforms.
When every tactic fails, trolling is the go-to act of those who disinform. By posting emotionally triggering content, the troll hopes to get a response or shape public opinion about an event or cause.
Manipulation has 6 key characteristics, from contradiction to trolling.
What are the signs of manipulation?
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Invalidation
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Emotion
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Polarization
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Impersonation
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Conspiracy
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Trolling
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. In opposition, conspiracy theories all have patterns of predictability. Conspiracies are seductively simple explanations of complex and chaotic events.
The Seven seductive segments of conspiracy
In the book Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden breaks down the conspiracy structure to unravel this pattern:
The "facts" presented in the conspiracy are not in alignment.
The "official narrative" faces immediate negative suspicion.
Evil actions are perpetrated for the benefit of shadowy bad actors.
When challenged, most conspiracy believers point to their gut; that something they cannot define is just not "right".
Conspiracy theorists cast themselves or their hero as the victim of a cabal of evildoers, for the purpose of eliciting sympathy.
The conspiracy theorist will deny introduction of facts into the conversation matter what rational concrete facts are put forth.
Random events are combined or given a greater meaning that all fits into a grand nefarious plan.
One of the wild conspiracy theories trafficked in recent history was the grand collusion of the NFL, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift in service to President Joseph Biden's Re-election campaign of 2024:
Discover the inner workings of this grand nefarious plan here.
Those out of power in a domestic conflict or out of political power are more likely to espouse conspiracy theories. In fact, conspiracy theories are usually trafficked more in times of great uncertainty or instability. It can also be used by bad actors to create division and confusion, expanding a state of emotion that is designed to cloud reason and logic.
All conspiracies have predictable patterns.
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Contradiction
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Skepticism
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Negative intent
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Something's wrong
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Persecuted victim
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Factual immunity
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Reinterpretation
What makes a conspiracy a conspiracy?
Known as an “echo chamber” or a “filter bubble,” it’s when multiple bad actors feed the same disinformation into numerous social media streams with the intent of a mass readership sharing, multiplying, and expanding the reach of disinformation.
In a 2021 study, the Center for Countering Digital Hate discovered that 65% of all anti-vaccine propaganda was sourced from the work of twelve individuals. The Center analyzed over 812,000 postings on Facebook and Twitter (aka X) from February 1 to March 16, 2021.
Anti-vaccine content is still platformed on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, ironically violating their terms of service. Although some anti-vax content has been removed, social media sites’ enforcement has been slow and inconsistent, allowing false information to be transmitted to millions of viewers.
Read The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s report here.
Once amplification has been achieved in reaching its audience, that individual’s feed is refreshed with even more problematic disinformation. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal investigated Facebook’s policies in a report, “The Facebook Files.” In the report, disconnection emerges between the public-facing policy vocalized by Facebook leadership and the actual practices it engages in.
Read The Wall Street Journal’s “The Facebook Files” here.
In 2022, the site JustSecurity.org discovered TikTok’s recommendation algorithm fed toxic content to viewers of transphobic videos. The more users interacted with the transphobic videos, subsequent feeds supplied hate symbols, white supremacist content, and calls to violence.
Those who engage in disinformation employ multiple channels simultaneously to deliver their amplified messaging.
What is amplification?
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individuals fueled 65% of COVID-19 anti-vaccine disinformation in 2021.
What is disinformation?
Misinformation is a mistake.
Disinformation is a lie.
Disinformation is false information deliberately and covertly spread to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. The person or persons engaged in disinformation are incentivized in a material interest (financial, power, political, ideological) to act for themselves or on behalf of others.
Disinformation is not to be confused with misinformation, known as inaccurate, incomplete, or false information that is spread by error. Disinformation’s deliberate intention is to deceive.
The function of Disinformation is not only to believe in the falsehood, but to create an enemy of the person or persons who are not believers of the falsehood.
Disinformation has a profound psychological impact, as we are all susceptible to its influence.
If extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, this printable page is your simple, easy-to-access page of content to share the search for a provable, knowable truth. This is just a toolkit to start the journey to better fact-checking and a greater media literacy.
Download any or all of the "Be A Friend of Truth" postcards to share and engage the conversation.
First things first. We're not talking about an "absolute" truth. There is no "absolute" truth. That's the stuff of cults, authoritarians, and dictators. This is about provable, knowable truth. You can find it when you do a little bit of digging for facts. The purpose of this site is to aid in recognizing and debunking disinformation through media literacy.
