Jennifer Atlee: Easy ways to curb disinformation

If you’re on social media or know people who are (hint: that’s all of us), you can help create a saner country. How? By helping to combat disinformation.

We are being encouraged to hate and fear each other. This isn’t one-sided, and it’s especially true this election season. Social media companies make money by capturing our attention, and outrage and fear do quite well whatever “side” you’re on. Add AI, bots, deep fakes, and ill-intentioned efforts to confuse fact and spin, and we’re courting disaster.

There are simple ways you can help: Don’t share disinformation, even to debunk it. Each time you engage with it, you’re boosting its visibility. If something gets you outraged, fact check (try snopes.com), Encourage others to pause before they click. Share ucsusa.org/resources/how-stop-disinformation. Join others in actively working to combat disinformation and support media literacy. Join indivisible.org/campaign/truth-brigade. Spread election truths. Help friends and family discern what’s true, particularly around voting and the electoral process for those in heavily targeted swing states. Share https://represent.us/votesafe/.

And read your local newspaper! No, really. Supporting local journalism has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to combat disinformation (see https://bit.ly/3ClgBtP). There’s more we can do, but big reforms like getting social media companies to change algorithms takes time. We can make a difference today by thinking twice about what we share, and encouraging others to do the same.

Jennifer Atlee

Montague