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TECH – On February 27, Facebook said it uncovered a Russian strategy to spread misinformation about Ukraine on its platform. The platform’s parent company, Meta, said it dismantled a coordinated Russian influence operation targeting Ukrainians on Facebook and Instagram – other platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Telegram are subject to similar strategies – with the aim of to create a false pretext for the invasion, to sow disinformation about the West and to make people believe that Ukraine is weak and corrupt.
When disinformation becomes an integral tactic in the preparation for war, it is easy to identify the damage and chaos it can cause, not to mention the loss of life.
In recent months, we have seen similar strategies on a multitude of topics, from climate change to COVID, to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, to the “Freedom Convoys”.
The “shared information bias”
Misinformation is increasing because, unfortunately, it works. The harsh reality is that we are all susceptible to this new weapon of choice.
Social media and online information and entertainment platforms are almost inevitable in our daily lives and promote the most sensational content. Malicious actors are increasingly creative in how they present and promote misinformation. Thus, we fall prey to a cognitive bias known as the “availability heuristic” which involves relying on information that immediately comes to mind when we are evaluating a specific topic, concept, or decision.
Worse still, we can facilitate the spread of these disinformation strategies by sharing “fake news” with our friends and family amplifying what is known as “shared information bias”. It occurs when we spend more time and energy on information that members of our groups are familiar with, and we put less effort into evaluating new information.
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Finally, we observe that citizens become polarized, which affects their way of seeking and interpreting information, amplifying the “confirmation bias”. It is about the instinctive tendency of the human mind to seek in priority the information which confirms its way of thinking, and to neglect all that could call it into question.
The reality is that we are less and less encouraged in our daily lives to exchange with people who have opposing points of view. The platforms’ algorithms push us content similar to what we’ve viewed previously. In this context, we tend to believe information that confirms our current beliefs, and we are less open to questions about why we believe something, where that belief came from, and who influenced it.
We must accelerate education in critical thinking
However, the situation is not hopeless. There is a growing library of critical thinking tools and resources that can help us fight the spread of misinformation. Indeed, reflection plays an important role in the fight against misinformation. Part of that is a better understanding of motivation — both our own motivations and those of those presenting information to us.
One of the solutions to deal with this collective “laxity” is therefore to accelerate critical thinking education. It can be developed by virtually anyone, at any time in life. All you need to do is commit to applying a few simple techniques on a regular basis. Parents can get help to introduce their children (and themselves) to the stages of critical thinking through guides that have been produced on the basis of multidisciplinary studies and research. Teachers can too.
And while new efforts are being made to tackle disinformation campaigns through new rules and restrictions on platforms, we can’t wait any longer to invest in this issue individually. Anyone can start now!
See also on The HuffPost: “Here we do not misinform!”: tensions in the Assembly after the controversial remarks of Martine Wonner
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