Nicholas Maher, BTN Reporter: Fake Videos and Misinformation are Everywhere Right Now.
Over the past fortnight, social media has been flooded with fake videos, photos, articles, and posts about the Israel-Gaza War.
For example, this isn't actually Gaza on fire; it's football fans celebrating in Algeria.
This isn't Hamas; it's from a video game.
This isn't an Israeli war crime; it's Russia attacking Ukraine.
And this isn't proof that Palestinians are faking deaths; it's from the set of a short film.
Experts fear that all of this misinformation and disinformation is not only making it harder to find the truth, but it's also fuelling tensions and hatred, and world leaders are demanding that social media platforms step up.
Now, misinformation isn't anything new, but if it feels like you've been seeing more of it in recent years, there are a number of studies and experts that seem to agree.
There are often 2 big factors that are said to be behind this.
Not only is technology getting better and easier to use, more people are turning to social media for their news and aren't getting their news from trusted organisations.
Experts say that recent changes, aren't helping either, like X making cuts related to moderation, and some platforms allowing pretty much anyone to get verified if they're willing to pay for it.
Not only does the verification problem make it more difficult to tell who's a legitimate authority, it also means that people can pay to have their voices amplified.
So, with the problem of misinformation seemingly getting worse, here are 4 things that you should look at before sharing anything online.
The first is looking at where the information is coming from.
Accounts without any personal information are obviously a red flag, but if the poster does has personal info, what's their expertise? Do they have a history of posting reliable content? Do they have any potential biases?
Who do they actually work for? What is the organisation's reputation? Who owns it? What agenda or motivations might it have?
On an even simpler level, is the content actually being posted by the organisation that it's claiming to be from? For example, fake BBC News content has regularly been spread to push disinformation.
The next thing to look at is the content itself.
Check the date. Is it an old article or a video taken out of context?
Ask yourself if the content might be manipulated. For example, is it an edited image or a deepfaked voice.
Try to read beyond the headline. Is the article stating a fact or is it just repeating a claim made by a certain group or person?
And try to think about why the content is being shared and what it's trying to achieve.
Something that can help with this is paying attention to the tone and language that's being used.
Misleading information might use exaggerated language to get your attention, or it might be trying to appeal to your emotions rather than reason to make you feel a certain way.
Now… once you've looked at the content, it's time to look elsewhere.
If something is as big of a deal as it seems, it'll appear in multiple places, and if it hasn't yet, maybe there's uncertainty about the details, or experts haven't been able to verify all of the facts yet.
In recent years, a number of media outlets have created or beefed up their fact-checking teams.
For example, BBC Verify which started in 2023, and not only helps to fact-check but shows the steps that it's taken to arrive at a conclusion.
The bottom line is that, the more places you look, the better chance you have of getting a fuller picture of what's going on.
An important thing to remember is that misinformation or disinformation isn't always about something being completely false. Some of the most effective disinformation contains slivers of the truth or is completely true but just taken out of context.
Finally, the last thing to look at, and something that people often forget to do, is looking at yourself.
It's important to be aware of what your own biases are because people are more likely to fall for misinformation if it tells them what they want to hear.
This can be particularly dangerous when it comes to disinformation around something like war because the goal is often to simplify things, so it's us vs them, good vs evil, in a way that can dehumanise the other side.
It can feel empowering to be told that you're on the side of the good guys, and at the same time, it can cause people to start dismissing or blocking out any information that challenges that idea, and the more entrenched that people become, they can start to excuse, dismiss, or even justify extreme acts of violence or cruelty.
Looking around at different sources and being open to information that challenges what you believe can help to cut through that, give you a better idea of the full context of what's happening, and make it easier to spot when someone or something is trying to manipulate you.
At the end of the day, there are so many things to consider here that one of the biggest pieces of advice that experts give is just to slow down.
Before you share something, don't just ask yourself who's posted this and why, but why am I sharing this? What am I hoping to achieve? Am I just helping to push someone else's agenda?
And if I can't be sure about what I'm sharing, will it really make that much of a difference to the world around me if I just slow down and wait until I can be sure that what I'm about to post is legitimate and can be trusted.
