Higgins, E. (2022)

Higgins. E. (2022). The big idea: how to win the fight against disinformation. The Guardian, 4.4.2022


 * "Social media has played a particularly significant role in the spread of disinformation. Malicious state enterprises such as the notorious Russian “troll farm” are part of this, certainly. But there is a more powerful mechanism: the way it brings together people, whether flat earthers or anti-vaxxers, who would find it difficult to meet like-minded folks in the real world. ... Why do counterfactual communities form? A key factor is distrust in mainstream authority. ... One way of looking at this is that government deception or hypocrisy has caused a form of moral injury. As with the proverb “once bitten, twice shy”, that injury can result in a kneejerk rejection of anyone perceived as being on the side of the establishment. This creates a problem for traditional approaches to combatting disinformation, such as the top-down factcheck, which might be provided by a mainstream media outlet or some other organisation. More often than not, this will be discredited, dismissed with: “They would say that, wouldn’t they?” Factchecking outfits may do good work, but they are missing a crucial component: the power of the crowd."
 * "... we’ve also seen what you might call truth-seeking communities emerge around specific issues. These are the internet users who want to inform themselves while guarding against manipulation by others, or being misled by their own preconceptions. Once established, they will not only share and propagate factchecks in a way that lends them credibility, but often conduct the process of factchecking themselves. What’s important about these communities is that they react quickly to information being put out by various actors, including states. ... I would go as far as to say that internet users who are heavily engaged with particular topics are our strongest defence against disinformation."
 * "But how do you grow and nurture what are essentially decentralised, self-organised, ad hoc groups like this? Our approach [Bellingcat] has been to engage with them, creating links from their useful social media posts to our publications (all thoroughly factchecked by our team), and crediting them for their efforts. We also create guides and case studies so that anyone who is inspired to give it a go themselves has the opportunity to learn how to do it."
 * "We must take a broader approach. The answer lies in creating a society that’s not only resilient against disinformation, but has the tools to actively contribute to efforts towards transparency and accountability. For example, digital media literacy charity The Student View has been going into schools and showing 16- to 18-year-olds how to use investigation techniques to look into issues affecting them. In one case, students in Bradford used freedom of information requests to uncover the unusually large number of high speed police chases in their areas. Teaching young people how to engage positively with issues they face and then expanding this work into online investigation is not only empowering, it gives them skills they can use throughout their lives. This is not about turning every 16- to 18-year-old into a journalist, police officer, or human rights investigator, but giving them tools they can use to contribute, in however small a way, to the fight against disinformation."