NEWS

Stop the spread: Disinformation threatens public health

Debra Destefani | Contributor
Vardan Sargsyan | Graphic Designer

Online influencers, click-bait, meme farms, and troll farms. Most all of us have been exposed to manipulative ads online and seen misinformation in our friends and family’s social media feeds.

False claims and COVID-19

The spread of misinformation is already harmful enough on a good day, but in the midst of a public health crisis, it can be downright dangerous.

In fact, 36% of individuals who frequently use social media held at least one false belief about the coronavirus, according to a survey published in March by the Reboot Foundation. And another survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, revealed that 48% of American adults said they’ve seen at least some made-up news about COVID-19.

Whether it’s posts touting a “miracle drug” cure for the disease—without medical or scientific evidence backing the claim—or a misconception that individuals of a certain race cannot become infected, the spread of misinformation can pose severe health consequences.

When politicians say one thing, and health officials say another, it’s hard to know what to believe. We must remain diligent and informed as we combat the “disinformation epidemic,” too.

Fake news isn’t new

Disinformation spread is similarly pervasive when it comes to political content. The impact that political advertisements on Facebook had on the 2016 presidential election is still a hot topic to this day.

“2016 was when things came to a head,” said Mary Lou Nagy, a journalism instructor at WCC. “For younger people, sharing online had more of an effect on elections than before.”

In 2019, Facebook rolled out its Facebook News section of the website. The idea was to create a more personalized way to receive news and to allow for users to have “the ability to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app.”

Now, for some users, Facebook is their primary news source. Shelby Keil, a 20-year-old WCC student, doesn’t have cable at home and relies on her phone for news updates. But not all of what people share is truly reliable news, she said.

“I see friends sharing fake news,” Keil said. “The problem is that people share satire as fact without checking the sources.”

There are steps that Facebook is taking to reduce the amount of misinformation and deception that is spread on the platform. The company claimed that it is working to stop the spread of misinformation by “helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.”

While the company is indeed making steps toward having more control over its content, the driving factor of the spread of misinformation online are the users themselves.

In times of crisis, when people can be more likely to be driven by fear-based and emotional responses, misleading data or deceptive claims can have particularly detrimental consequences. It’s our responsibility to be wary about the information we share and consume.

What can you do to stop the vicious cycle of sharing disinformation?

First, it’s important to research an article and its facts before sharing it on your feed.

“When you see a post that seems geared toward emotion, check it out first before you immediately post,” Nagy said. “Take a look at the link. Read info about the site. Is it a credible source?”

Most misinformation is spread on accident, usually without malicious intent by the person posting it. That’s why it’s important to think critically about the information that is presented to you.

Take a moment and ask yourself if a report seems slanted, tells you how to think, or is published by an untrustworthy source—content riddled with grammatical and spelling errors can be a tip-off that a source lacks credibility.

Find out who sponsors or funds the source, and what their motives might be; is it publicly funded research conducted by experts? Or a private interest group looking to fulfill a political agenda?

Look at other publications to see if the information has been reported elsewhere by credible, well-known sources. Verify claims with a fact-checking site. Often, if a claim seems too outrageous to be true, that’s because it isn’t.

A good source for how to be more conscientious of online news is through the News Literacy Project, at newslit.org.