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While the situation for the Israeli and Palestinian people remains on a knife edge, there is a parallel online war being fought for hearts and minds around the rest of the world.
Unfortunately that’s no sideshow. How we respond to that online war will have massive consequences for the fate of the civilians caught up in this, particularly in the US and the UK whose support of Israel had already emboldened the far-right Israeli government even before Israelis were murderously attacked. And with elections in 2024 for both countries there’s the risk that US and UK political leaders are lining up to show their strongman credentials for the sizeable proportion of both electorates that go in for that sort of thing.
Similarly, buying into a one-sided and often extreme Islamist perspective risks taking people from supporters of Palestinian human rights into terrorist apologists who provide cover and encouragement to those willing to perpetuate the worst violence.
We have a responsibility not to make an appalling situation even worse by ramping up the rhetoric on both sides. So this is an important article, particularly the SIFT approach at its core which I’m copying and pasting here. Still read the article but this is the important stuff:
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Learn to SIFT
The SIFT method, developed by digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield, is a good framework for learning how to evaluate emotionally charged or outrage-inducing online posts in the middle of an unfolding crisis. There are two reasons I like it: First, it’s adaptable to a lot of situations. And second, the goal here isn’t a full fact-check. SIFT is meant to be a quick series of checks that anyone can do in order to decide how much of your attention to give what you’re seeing and whether you feel comfortable sharing a post with others.
The SIFT method breaks down to four steps: “Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context.” That “Stop” step can do a lot of work during a major, violent conflict like the Israel-Hamas war. People get engagement on questionable or untrue posts during breaking news by tugging on your emotions and beliefs. So if a video, photograph, or post about the war seems to confirm everything you’ve ever believed about a topic or makes you immediately furious or hopeful or upset, stop yourself from instantly sharing it.
Then, investigate the source. This can be done pretty quickly. Click on the account sharing the thing you saw and glance at their information and previous posts. You’re not launching a full-scale investigation here. You’re just trying to get a sense of who has ended up in your feed. Next, find better coverage. That means you open up a bunch of tabs. Is this being reported anywhere else by trustworthy news sources? Has this claim been fact-checked? And finally, trace the source. Open up the news article and run a search for a phrase in the quote you’re about to share. See if you can find that image attributed elsewhere, and make sure the captions describe the same thing.
Pronouns: He/Him
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Learn to SIFT – good article and guide to dealing with misinformation on 10:34 - Oct 14 with 662 views
As it is, I am not on social media (apart from TWTD), but I treat with scepticism everything I come across, and always like to find out what agenda a particular writer, article or organisation might have .
Take, for example, the Royal United Services Institute which is generally regarded as a trusted organisation when it comes to defence and security matters. But if you probe, you find its second biggest donor is the US State Department, followed closely by BAE Systems. Now that doesn't mean that what it produces should be dismissed but it does suggest to me that it should be treated with caution because its presumably not going to come out with stuff the US State Department doesn't like.
Perhaps Thin Lizzy put it best.
[Post edited 14 Oct 2023 11:43]
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Learn to SIFT – good article and guide to dealing with misinformation on 10:54 - Oct 14 with 615 views
Learn to SIFT – good article and guide to dealing with misinformation on 10:34 - Oct 14 by DJR
That's good advice.
As it is, I am not on social media (apart from TWTD), but I treat with scepticism everything I come across, and always like to find out what agenda a particular writer, article or organisation might have .
Take, for example, the Royal United Services Institute which is generally regarded as a trusted organisation when it comes to defence and security matters. But if you probe, you find its second biggest donor is the US State Department, followed closely by BAE Systems. Now that doesn't mean that what it produces should be dismissed but it does suggest to me that it should be treated with caution because its presumably not going to come out with stuff the US State Department doesn't like.
Perhaps Thin Lizzy put it best.
[Post edited 14 Oct 2023 11:43]
Yes, scepticism (at least initially before checking facts and other sources to confirm) is a vital default setting.
Especially when even our mainstream press seems to apply SIFT sporadically rather than as a universal reporting standard and a key requisite to doing their job. There’s a systemic issue there in the UK re: political reporters needing access to power which goes against them holding power to account and of course our sizeable proportion of right-wing controlled media and their messaging. But the key issue is more global than that where the modern media business and the need to cover everything at home and around the world with often fewer resources means that prevailing stories are lazily repeated by assuming/pretending legitimacy because everyone else is doing the same.
There’s clearly no time to investigate everything but that’s no excuse for investigating the accuracy of very little and just racing to publish “news” so you can pick up business from the audience.
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