How to Deal With a Crisis of Misinformation?

False news is on the rise. We can fight the spread with a simple exercise: Slow down and be skeptical.
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source: Glenn Harvey

There’s a disease that has been spreading for years now. Like any resilient virus, it evolves to find new ways to attack us. It’s not in our bodies, but on the web.
It has different names: misinformation, disinformation or distortions. Whatever the label, it can be harmful, especially now that it is being produced through the lens of several emotionally charged events: the coronavirus pandemic, a presidential election and protests against law enforcement.
How do we adapt to avoid being manipulated and spreading false information to the people we care about? Past methods of spotting untruthful news, like checking articles for typos and phony web addresses that resemble those of trusted publications, are now less relevant. We have to employ more sophisticated methods of consuming information, like doing our own fact-checking and choosing reliable news sources.
Here’s what we can do.

Be a Fact Checker

Get used to this keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+T (or Command+T on a Mac). That creates a new browser tab in Chrome and Firefox. You’re going to be using it a lot. The reason: It enables you to ask questions and hopefully get some answers with a quick web search.
It’s all part of an exercise that Ms. Byron calls lateral reading. While reading an article, Step 1 is to open a browser tab. Step 2 is to ask yourself these questions:

  • Who is behind the information?
  • What is the evidence?
  • What do other sources say?

Choose Your News Carefully

“A lot of people fall into the trap of thinking no source of information is perfect,” Mr. Adams said. “That’s when people really start to feel lost and overwhelmed and open themselves up to sources they really should stay away from.”

While social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help us stay connected with the people we care about, there’s a downside: Even the people we trust may be unknowingly spreading false information, so we can be caught off guard. And with everything mashed together into a single social media feed, it gets tougher to distinguish good information from bad information, and fact from opinion.
What we can do is another exercise in mindfulness: Be deliberate about where you get your information, Mr. Adams said. Instead of relying solely on the information showing up in your social media feeds, choose a set of publications that you trust, like a newspaper, a magazine or a broadcast news program, and turn to those regularly.
Mainstream media is far from perfect, but it’s subjected to a standards process that is usually not seen in user-generated content, including memes.

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A “Save the Children Rally” in Keene, N.H.Credit...Joseph Prezioso/AFP — Getty Images

The most frightening part about misinformation is when it transcends digital media and finds its way into the real world. Mr. Duke of Lead Stories said he and his wife had recently witnessed protesters holding signs with the message #SavetheChildren. The signs alluded to a false rumor spread by supporters of the QAnon conspiracy about a child-trafficking network led by top Democrats and Hollywood elites. The pro-Trump conspiracy movement had effectively hijacked the child-trafficking issue, mixing facts with its own fictions to suit its narrative. Conspiracy theories have fueled some QAnon believers to be arrested in cases of serious crimes, including a murder in New York and a conspiracy to kidnap a child.

“QAnon has gone from misinformation online to being out on the street corner,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s dangerous."

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Dessert for Today!

WIRED25 2020: Avi Schiffmann, the 17-Year-Old Who Built the First Coronavirus Tracker

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Avi Schiffmann built the first coronavirus tracker in January 2020, before global organizations were aggregating cases. His dashboard proved essential. At WIRED25, he spoke with Megan Molteni about his plans to visualize candidates.

Does the House Antitrust Report Mean That Tech Is Evil?

Plus: a plan to break up Microsoft, anonymity on the internet, and a baffling balcony address.

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The Plain View

Like any good nonfiction writer, the Majority Staff (i.e., Democrats) of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law has produced a long-read document distinguished by deep research and an unyielding thesis: Big Tech is too big, too bad, and fights dirty.
We need stronger antitrust law, stricter enforcement, and a set of rules that protects smaller businesses from the power of dominant players in all industries. Unfortunately, the prospects for legislation aren’t rosy: The House subcommittee couldn’t get the minority to join this painstakingly thorough report. It might be off-base to blame technology for our woes, but you can’t go wrong blaming politics.

Time Travel

One possible course the House report suggested is rolling back some of Facebook’s purchases, essentially pulling Instagram and/or WhatsApp out of the company. It reminded me of the Department of Justice’s recommendation, after winning the Microsoft antitrust case, to split that company into two pieces, one for Windows and one for its applications business.

Ask Me One Thing

Randy asks, “If the internet was changed to NOT allow people to use it anonymously, would this solve a lot of its problems?”
Randy, by “problems,” I assume you are referring to bad behavior, threats, ransomware, spoofing, free exchange of stolen goods, child pornography, espionage, and the wanton spread of misinformation. In other words, the internet. Seriously, it does sound tempting to eliminate all that misbehavior by limiting access to only those whose identity is certified, kind of a Real ID that must be checked before you fire up your browser or swipe your phone. But putting aside the technical barriers, do we really want that? It would solve some problems, sure, but sometimes even knowing who’s doing bad things doesn’t mean that you can catch those people or restrain them. Worse, won’t you feel uncomfortable being traced in everything you do? I have hopes that there will be less tracking. And removing the possibility of anonymity would be a boon to authoritarian regimes and those who want to keep whistle-blowers quiet. Ending anonymity would solve some problems, fail to solve other problems, and create some alarming new ones. But don’t quote me on that—I prefer to remain anonymous.

Last but Not Least

Here are some highlights from the House’s antitrust report.
Lauren Smiley’s amazing account aof what happened when a rural town in Washington mistakenly thought it was being invaded by antifa.
Got a Mac? Think it’s safe? Think again.

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Riled Up: Misinformation Stokes Calls for Violence on Election Day

Baseless claims are circulating online about a Democrat-led coup, inflaming tensions in an already turbulent election season.

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Dan Bongino, a right-wing commentator, amplified an unsubstantiated rumor that the left was planning a coup against President Trump.Credit...Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

In a video posted to Facebook on Sept. 14, Dan Bongino, a popular right-wing commentator and radio host, declared that Democrats were planning a coup against President Trump on Election Day.
For just over 11 minutes, Mr. Bongino talked about how bipartisan election experts who had met in June to plan for what might happen after people vote were actually holding exercises for such a coup. To support his baseless claim, he twisted the group’s words to fit his meaning.
“I want to warn you that this stuff is intense,” Mr. Bongino said, speaking into the camera to his 3.6 million Facebook followers. “Really intense, and you need to be ready to digest it all.”

“I want to warn you that this stuff is intense,” Mr. Bongino said, speaking into the camera to his 3.6 million Facebook followers. “Really intense, and you need to be ready to digest it all.”
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His video, which has been viewed 2.9 million times, provoked strong reactions. One commenter wrote that people should be prepared for when Democrats “cross the line” so they could “show them what true freedom is.” Another posted a meme of a Rottweiler about to pounce, with the caption “Veterans be like … Say when Americans.”
The coup falsehood was just one piece of misinformation that has gone viral in right-wing circles ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. In another unsubstantiated rumor that is circulating on Facebook and Twitter, a secret network of elites was planning to destroy the ballots of those who voted for Mr. Trump. And in yet another fabrication, supporters of Mr. Trump said an elite cabal planned to block them from entering polling locations on Election Day.
All of the rumors appeared to be having the same effect: riling up Mr. Trump’s restive base, just as the president has publicly stoked the idea of election chaos. In comment after comment about the falsehoods, respondents said the only way to stop violence from the left was to respond in kind with force.
“Liberals and their propaganda,” one commenter wrote. “Bring that nonsense to country folks who literally sit in wait for days to pull a trigger.”
The misinformation, which has been amplified by right-wing media such as the Fox News host Mark Levin and outlets like Breitbart and The Daily Wire, adds contentiousness to an already powder-keg campaign season. Mr. Trump has repeatedly declined to say whether he would accept a peaceful transfer of power if he lost to his Democratic challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and has urged his supporters “to go into the polls and watch very carefully.”
On YouTube, dozens of videos pushing the false coup narrative have collectively gathered more than 1.2 million views since Sept. 7, according to a tally by The Times. One video was titled “RED ALERT: Are the President’s Enemies Preparing a COUP?”

The risk of misinformation translating to real-world action is growing, said Mike Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State University Vancouver.

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