Techniques for Detecting Disinformation

The sheer quantity of today’s disinformation, and its growing impact on citizens, is affecting more than just people’s understanding of news events. For some, the cascade of disinformation blurs the line between well-research news stories and skillfully crafted propaganda,

To stop the foundation of journalism from being further eroded, both journalists and news consumers can make a quick judgment on potential accuracy – by asking themselves a few basic questions.This is a simplified approach to a complex problem, and it will not stop all disinformation from slipping through. But it’s a good starting point for a broader evaluation..

Steps to Take When Encountering Any News Story

• When news or information arrives, decide if it comes from a trusted source. That can be very challenging, but it’s still a useful starting point. On social media, information origins are often dubious. Further review is often necessary.
• Look at the history of the account sharing the news. Does the individual or organization have an obvious political orientation? Do they always post news that’s slanted to favor one side of an argument? It’s not unusual for someone who has X political beliefs to share a breaking news story that supports their beliefs. But knowing such biases while reading a story should can help raise a level of doubt and spur additional investigation.

Besides the source, the content itself can hold clues.

• What is your first take on the accuracy of the content? Is it potentially correct or potentially incorrect? (Again, this is not easy to judge. But it’s a useful starting point.) If truthfulness is tough to judge, then decide if the claim is plausible or implausible. A plausibility check is just a way to triage the news and decide what the next step should be.
• Does a news story have a lot of upvotes, shares and reposts? If so, look at the other participants who have shared the story. Do many of them look like simple bot accounts? Do the people sharing often comment using the same phrases? That’s a strong indication of bot-amplified disinformation.
• Aldous Huxley once said “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. “ And in today’s environment, we should add: lies do not become true just because they are often repeated.
• When making your initial judgment call, don’t ignore your own prejudices or political or religious orientations. If a news story supports your own beliefs, it can be tempting to never question its accuracy. But if you don’t weigh each story fairly, you can end up with a growing confirmation bias, and you may risk finding yourself in an echo chamber – which can be difficult to escape. People who, without evidence, believed that the U.S. presidential election was stolen often held that belief because false claims were constantly shared by their peers.
• If a news story also includes a call to action, that too should raise a red flag. A news story should contain facts. It should not include instructions on how to interpret those facts. (That’s an editorial, not a news story.) And a news story should never tell the reader to take specific actions based on the news. That’s when it becomes especially worth investigating whether the person or group sharing the news has any intent to cause harm by spreading the false content.
• Be wary of stories with vague statements like “we need to stop this” or “we need to show up at this named location.” Often the person sharing the information is trying to stoke conflict, but they are not taking the risk of saying so outright.
• Be especially suspicious of so-called news articles that promote any sort of “it’s us against them” narrative. Divisive statements are not news. They are manipulations.
• Be aware that false news can be amplified inadvertently. For example, major news organizations often (with the best of intentions) display what they deem to be inaccurate tweets or emails from public figures. But unless those news sites make an effort to fully debunk a false claim, they may accidentally end up helping those claims become prominent talking points.
• Even if the public reception to disinformation is immediately negative, bad actors will still try to get people to read their claims, or get reporters to challenge their claims. They do that because it can still help their long game. Even if disproven, repetition of a false claim can help embed that disinformation in people’s minds.

This may all sound bleak, but journalists and news consumers can take a more proactive stance to help fight disinformation.

• By its nature, news needs to be quick. When something happens, people immediately start looking for answers. Bad actors have learned this and they are quick to issue a false narrative. If they do it fast enough, it may be the only narrative available for a while. People may start to talk about a false claim as if it’s potentially true, making it tougher to challenge that narrative lager.
• Journalists should not focus on strange claims or eccentric news just to fill their news space. It may seem interesting, but it does not lead to broader social understanding of what is legitimate (and provable) news.
• Try to fully understand important issues, then combat false narratives, without aggressively criticizing individual people or political parties. That can make people defend something they may not have been inclined to defend.
• Anecdotes can be useful because they provide a way for citizens to understand complex issues. But journalists have to be careful not to spend all their time addressing multiple anecdotes that are designed to present a false narrative. Focus instead on how all the anecdotes fit together to support a larger false narrative. Focus on disproving that bigger picture instead.
• Education is key. It’s never too early to start teaching children how to be savvy news consumers and how to evaluate what might be true versus what might be false. (Or at least help them recognize claims that are poorly supported.) And it’s particularly important not to inject any biases during this training.

These are very simple steps, and they won’t cure the growing disinformation problem. But they can help people become discerning consumers of news.