In a September 22nd article for the Union for Concerned Citizens, Senior Climate Campaign Manager has some very useful advice. In the face of the onslaught of climate disinformation, it’s best to be prepared for the lies and respond with facts:
“Don’t wait until a crisis hits and then chase lies around the internet. Build trusted networks. Make reliable information easy to find. Anticipate the ways people are likely to be manipulated…
Warn people before the lies arrive. Start now. Share this post—or other reliable sources about election disinformation—with your friends, family, colleagues, and communities. Tell people what to expect: between now and November, people will deliberately try to capture their attention, provoke strong emotions, deepen divisions, and influence their votes…
This is called ‘prebunking’: warning people about disinformation and the techniques used to spread it before they encounter them. Research suggests that advance warnings can help people recognize and resist manipulation when they see it…
Choose your sources before you need them
If we see a frightening claim about voting on Election Day, that’s a bad time to start figuring out whom to trust.
Instead, we can find our state and local election officials now and use their official websites and published election information as primary sources for rules, deadlines, and procedures. Bookmark reliable local news sources. Do the same for other subjects where bad information can cause real harm: for instance, extreme weather; civil, LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights, public health, immigration. We can build ourselves a short list of places to check when something alarming appears in our feeds…
Learn the tricks, not the lies
We don’t need to imagine every false claim we might encounter. We couldn’t if we tried.
Instead, we can learn to notice how information is being manipulated. Sometimes evidence is fabricated. Sometimes real photographs, statistics, or events are stripped of context or given a false explanation. A genuine problem may be presented without the safeguards or remedies designed to address it. A small incident may be exaggerated into evidence of widespread failure. Intent may be invented and assigned to someone without evidence…
Don’t help disinformation travel
If something makes us instantly furious, frightened, or triumphant, let’s not immediately give it a larger audience.
Repeating a false claim—even to debunk or ridicule it—can make it more familiar. Linking to it can send it traffic. Sharing it can expose people to a lie they hadn’t encountered before. Check first. When we do need to correct false information, lead with what is true and send people toward reliable sources…”
Read the full article.