Disinformation: fighting back

Sunday Essay: How each of us can push back hard against information sewage

Photo by Hadija on Unsplash

In his short story, “The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether,” Edgar Allan Poe wrote:

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.

I think we can update that to “Believe nothing you hear, see or read—until you’ve sifted it for accuracy.”

Rampant polarization, in the United States and globally, desperately calls out for tools to sort fact from fiction. Mis- and disinformation are threats to all things democratic, fair, and decent. I often feel frustrated, helpless, angry, or terrified about the effects that lies have on the people who believe and spread them, and how the deceit affects critical things like election integrity and policy decisions. The dark side of an instantly-connected world creates and spreads a virulent poison that threatens our peaceful and respectful coexistence with each other, wildlife, and the natural global ecosystem on this fragile planet.

Recently, I learned of a heuristic forming the acronym SIFT; it is a robust tool in fighting the scourge of ubiquitous garbage posing as truth. SIFT is not new, but it is new to me, so I wanted to share it with you and encourage you to spread it far and wide.

Its elements are common sense, but having them in an easy-to-remember format has the potential to make the practice become implanted as a habitual reaction to the information bombarding us. We can spread it like an antidote to help educate the hordes of people who believe everything they see and hear who then spread it like the nasty sickness it is.

In all humility, I know that I am susceptible to the echo chamber too, so intend to continue to interrogate information I come across before accepting or disseminating it further, and I’m glad to have more tools to do so.

SIFT was developed by Mike Caulfield, director of the Digital Polarization Initiative and an instructor at Washington State University - Vancouver.

There are four steps to this process:

• Stop

• Investigate the source

• Find better coverage

• Trace claims, media, and coverage back to the original context

Here is the free course from Washington State University, dealing with online sourcing, fact checking, and evaluation:

Check, Please! Starter Course

In this course, we show you how to fact and source-check in five easy lessons, taking about 30 minutes apiece. The entire online curriculum is two and a half to three hours and is suitable homework for the first week of a college-level module on disinformation or online information literacy, or the first few weeks of a course if assigned with other discipline-focused homework.

Once students have completed the starter course they can move on to any number of additional topical modules we will be rolling out. The topical modules go into more depth on skills, and explore specific social issues around information pollution.

Lesson One: Introduction to SIFT

Lesson Two: Investigate the Source

Lesson Three: Further Investigation

Lesson Four: Find Trusted Coverage

Lesson Five: Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to Their Original Context

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~For more about the influence of big tech, you might be interested in the following~

⇨ October 31- Live event from the Brookings Institution

Techlash: Who makes the rules in the digital Gilded Age?

How much longer will powerful technology companies operate with limited public oversight? Who is making the rules of the digital age? These are the questions central to Brookings Visiting Fellow Tom Wheeler’s new book, “Techlash: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?” In “Techlash,” Wheeler compares the present digital age to the last great technology-driven era—the Gilded Age—drawing comparisons between the two that offer solutions to help us navigate the current digital era.

Join Governance Studies at Brookings for an event with Tom Wheeler to discuss “Techlash.” Wheeler will be joined in discussion by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) who introduced legislation for a new Digital Protection Commission to address the ongoing challenges created by digital platforms. The event will be moderated by New York Times technology reporter and author of “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Dominance,” Cecilia Kang. 

Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. EDT - Register to watch online

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Here are some links to other resources~

Please leave your links, ideas, resources, and thoughts in the comments section!

• The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), a nonpartisan initiative housed at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, develops comprehensive strategies to deter, defend against, and raise the costs on autocratic efforts to undermine and interfere in democratic institutions. ASD has staff in Washington, D.C., and Brussels, bringing together experts on disinformation, malign finance, emerging technologies, elections integrity, economic coercion, and cybersecurity, as well as Russia, China, and the Middle East, to collaborate across traditional stovepipes and develop cross-cutting frameworks.

• Countering Disinformation A guide to promoting information integrity

• Brookings Institution Commentary - How social media platforms can reduce polarization

• Pew Research Center: Media Sources: Distinct Favorites Emerge on the Left and Right

• How to Fact Check and Verify Information Before Sharing It Online by Khadijah Shahzad

• Foreign Affairs: Search results for “disinformation”

• American Democracy Project