Data Detox: Spot misinformation

Apps, websites, and online media can be essential for accessing news, life hacks, and entertainment. But amid all that content, it can be tough to navigate the distractions to find what you’re really looking for.

What’s more, it can be hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction when you encounter a video, picture, or article online. From personality quizzes that try to profile you, to shocking headlines and altered photos or videos that can convince you of a completely different reality, what you see online is not always what it seems.

Having access to so much information can be both a blessing and a curse. The problem lies when things are not clearly labeled or are misleading, making it difficult for you to know what is what. We’re not just talking about misinformation, so-called “fake news,” or political advertisements... even a silly photo-filter app might not be designed for the reasons you think. The best defense is to ask critical questions, so you can learn to recognize the difference between a harmless parody and a hoax, between content that’s intentionally misleading or just poorly researched, and to spot red flags and unreliable sources.

In this Data Detox, you’ll explore misinformation-related topics and buzzwords, starting with a close-up look at your responsibility and then exploring the bigger picture, while getting advice on how to find your way through what’s out there.

Let’s go!

1. REALIZE YOUR POWER TO MAKE WAVES

Liking, sharing, retweeting, reposting – these actions all describe how you interact with what you see online – and your interactions make a big difference. When enough people engage with a picture, video, or post, it spreads rapidly, by definition becoming ‘viral’.

Take a moment to ask yourself: “What’s my influence online?” When was the last time you saw a shocking or funny article, headline, video, or image, and within seconds you had already forwarded it to your friends?

Researchers have found that the stories and images most likely to go viral are those that make you feel fearful, disgusted, in awe, angry, or anxious. If this is something you did just this morning, don’t feel bad!

2. THINK TWICE BEFORE TAKING THAT PERSONALITY TEST

When was the last time you saw a quiz (either in text or photo filters) called something like:

• Which decade are you?
• What is your spirit animal?
• Which Disney villain are you?
• ... the list goes on!

While there’s a chance this was a fun quiz designed to get you to engage, it’s also possible that the questions were carefully crafted to collect data in order to categorize your personality, based on so-called psychometric patterns. The most commonly used psychological profiling scale measures your personality based on 5 traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (also referred to as OCEAN) in an attempt to more effectively target you or people like you.

Your answers to a quiz like “Which Simpsons character are you?,” along with your other habits that might be monitored by your browser, app, or connected items like loyalty cards, can give data analysts a sense of what kind of person you are, what you care about, and how to influence you to buy a pair of shoes (for example)... or even build a profile of you in order to decide how to try to influence you to vote a certain way in the next election.

3. DON’T TAKE THE BAIT

• “You won’t believe these beauty tricks (number 5 is shocking!)”
• “Unbelievable! She ate this everyday and now...”
• “Man vs. Shark: What happens next will surprise you...”

When was the last time you clicked on a headline or video that sounded like this? Maybe it advertised one thing, but it led to content that was actually quite different than you expected? It could be that the headline seemed exciting but the article was actually really tame. It turned out you were neither shocked nor surprised.

That’s because you were baited to click on it.

Click bait is a term used to describe sensationalist, dishonest, or made-up headlines used with the intent to provoke people to click on the headline or link. The more attention an article, video, or image receives, the more money it’s likely to earn. That means there’s a motivation for creators to say anything it takes to get you to click on or share their content.

Based on the personality profile built about you by the platforms you use (like Facebook and Instagram), you may get customized headlines that have been created to trigger your emotions in a way that’s most likely to get you to click.

Click bait may be found alongside misinformation, but not always. Once you begin identifying click bait headlines, you’ll notice them all over YouTube, blogs, and tabloids.

4. WATCH OUT FOR FAKES

Deep fakes are videos, audio clips, or pictures that have been digitally altered, typically to replace someone’s face or movements or to alter their words. While “deep fakes” is a recent term, they have actually been around in one form or another for ages (like in the 1917 Cottingley Fairies photo or in the 1994 film Forrest Gump). It’s even easier to create so-called cheap fakes – misleading content that doesn’t require sophisticated technology, but instead can be created by simply putting the wrong headline on a photo or video, or using outdated content to illustrate a current event.

5. SEEK THE TRUTH ON THE INTERNET

The term “fake news” is used to refer to a wide range of inaccurate or misleading information, including satire, poorly researched or unverified content, hoaxes, and scams. Fake news isn’t always spread maliciously, but regardless of the reason behind why it’s shared, the result is generally the same: people on the receiving end believe that something wrong is actually right, or that something happened that never did.

All Hands on Deck

Just because a website doesn’t acknowledge their mistakes, it doesn’t mean they don’t make them. In fact, the most reliable publications are those that are extra careful with the truth, and employ people or entire departments whose sole job it is to fact-check.

6. BURST YOUR FILTER BUBBLE

After websites and apps build a profile of what your interests are, you might find yourself in a filter bubble. This is when services feed you more stories like the ones you’re already clicking on. How does that limit or change what you hear about?

YouTube is the most obvious example of a platform that recommends content based on what you already watch (also known as “algorithmic curation”), but similar set ups can be found on Netflix, Spotify, on the Instagram and Twitter explore pages, in your Facebook feed, and on Amazon.

Being in a filter bubble can cause people to see completely different stories, news headlines, articles, and advertisements, as demonstrated in the interactive article Blue Feed, Red Feed.

It might sound like a good thing to only see content that has been tailored for you. But consider this example: in the same way that your interest in dog training videos on YouTube will continue to recommend similar dog videos, your neighbor’s interest in conspiracy videos on the same platform will continue them down that path. In the worst case, filter bubbles can make neighbors and communities and even whole nations more polarized.

If you know you’re viewing algorithmically curated content designed specifically for you across your apps and websites, the question is: how can you step outside of your filter bubble?