Think before you engage or share

Part 1 of 5 Ways You can Fight Disinformation this Election Season

As we move on to the next stage of “Election Season”, it’s more important than ever to guard against disinformation. False information can prevent people from voting, cast doubt on the credibility of the election process, and potentially even be used as the basis for a coup attempt.

So it’s up to all of us to fight back against disinformation.

Shireen Mitchell’s All of us have been targeted by disinformation

As Shireen Mitchell says, if you have an immediate reaction to share a link without verifying or fact-checking, you need to pause and look at things differently. One of the goals of disinformation is to get you to react emotionally. Even if it’s something you agree with, it’s important to think before you engage.

• Is the information you’re about to share accurate and from a reliable source? If not, be very careful not to give it more visibility when you’re trying to debunk it.
• Even if the information you’re about to share is accurate, look at the headline and any images that you’re sharing to make sure they’ve got the right framing.
• Avoid headlines that include disinfo. Instead, look for headlines and articles that focus on the accurate information, or report that there’s disinfo but don’t repeat it.
• If you can’t find a headline and article that work well, consider just quoting a few lines from an article (or taking a screenshot) rather than linking.

Shireen’s Deep Dive on Fighting Back Against Disinfo goes into a lot more detail on this.

ReFrame’s infographics on How to NOT amplify disinfo

ReFrame also has some great infographics on how to not amplify disinfo. Jen Soriano of ReFrame has more in this short video.

Thinking carefully about how to engage is important because the algorithms that drive social networks like Facebook and Twitter give more attention to content that’s engaging people. So whenever you get share a link (even if you’re saying “OMG look at this fake information!”) or involved in a discussion in the comments debunking or debating a post that’s disinformation, you’re calling more attention to it.

When you do decide to engage with disinformation, here’s the approach that ReFrame and other disinfo experts suggest this four-step process.

1. Lead with shared values to connect with your audience.
2. Discredit the falsehood by naming the motivations driving the
   disinformation.
3. State the falsehood you intend to inoculate against.
4. Deliver factual information to combat the falsehood.

Part of the series 5 Ways to Fight Disinformation this Election Season.

1. Think before you engage or share
2. Educate yourself — and your friends and family
3. Share accurate information about the election
4. Report disinformation when you see it
5. Join a grassroots disinfo-fighting campaign