Have often do you stumbled upon fake news online?
And during those time, what actions did you take?
Upon stumbling upon misinformation and disinformation while browsing your social media feeds, there are several actions that you can take.
Nothing
If you found a news article that seems too sensational or too extreme to be true, big chances are it is fake news.
By doing nothing and not sharing it, you are actually helping to stop the flow of misinformation and disinformation to your circle.
However, if you are sharing it to comment on it (while knowing it is fake news), it is not always helpful because this provides others to further propagate the content.
So, instead of spreading misinformation and disinformation, you should ignore it.
Be cautious
Any news article that plays to emotions should be view with caution.
For instance, injustice, cruelty and corruption often makes people upset and angry.
So, such story tends to heighten our emotions and provoke strong feelings.
The creators of fake news know the power of emotions and will use it as a tool in their work. Therefore, do check your sources before sharing.
Triangulation and lateral reading
According to author of Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era, Nicole Cooke, there are two techniques you can use help verify information: triangulation and lateral reading.
Triangulation means confirming a story in at least three news sources. Lateral reading involves opening up new tabs in your browser to investigate sites or claims as you encounter them.
To prevent inadvertently spreading false information, Cooke recommends holding off on posting until you’re sure it’s real.
You can do this by searching out disconfirming evidence of your theories, and forming factually-supported arguments with new evidence that can further prove your point.
Clean your social media feed
To deal with disinformation that only feed to our bias online, it is important to get out from our personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behaviour and search history.
On Facebook for instance, you can “like” any post posted by your friends so that the algorithms can’t categorize you if they can’t determine what you really like.
Another way is to follow prestige and credible publications and sources so that your newsfeed is clear of the most polarizing stories pushed by who are out to influence and incite anger rather than inform.
Apart from that, you may also consider temporarily unfollow people whose accounts share your perspectives to make room for different voices to appear.
Report any Misinformation and Disinformation
If you have stumbled upon any misinformation and disinformation on social media, there are steps you can take to report it.
However, for each social media platform, there are different process for you to report any fake news that you found.
On Facebook for instance, find the little chevron/down arrow in the top corner and then pick the “report post” option.
Then, click on the reason why you would like to report it.
Upon completing this, you have done your public duty as a responsible netizen.
