Fact-checking and Fighting Misinformation

 Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. 
(Proverbs 4:23, GNT) 

• Do you have the skills to distinguish verifiable facts, arguable opinions, biased content, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda in your research and daily life?

• Check out the materials on this page and on the pages linked on the left navigation menu.

Source for definitions: Merriam-Webster

Children Harmed by Misinformation

Children around the world are suffering due to misinformation and disinformation that have spread rapidly online in recent years.

• Millions of children worldwide are at risk of debilitating, preventable illnesses worldwide. PBS News Hour reports that many parents have declined to get routine vaccinations for their children because they encountered vaccine misinformation and disinformation in recent years, such as fake videos about the polio vaccine.
• Parents and healthcare workers are at risk of harming children if they follow inaccurate advice spread maliciously or inadvertently in social media. For example, scammers are selling dangerous fake remedies for treating autism and other disorders.
• Misinformation and disinformation can lead to ethnic and political violence, and children are typically the most vulnerable when violence breaks out.
• Young people regularly encounter dangerous behaviors shared as health advice on social media.
• Read more about these risks in this UNICEF report.

Deepfakes

Can you tell which fox is AI generated? Click each image to find out!

Watch out! This was actually a misleading question. Both fox images are AI generated. To test your ability to identify deepfake images and videos, try out the BBC's AI or Real Quiz!

AI-generated deepfake images, audio, and videos are a growing source of maliciously-planted disinformation online. A deepfake is defined as “Any of various media, esp. a video, that has been digitally manipulated to replace one person's likeness convincingly with that of another, often used maliciously to show someone doing something that he or she did not do” (Oxford English Dictionary).

Check out the following articles in the media on this topic.

• Could AI sway the 2024 election? Here's what's being done nationally to stop deepfakes. - USA Today
• AI fakes raise election risks as lawmakers and tech companies scramble to catch up - NPR
• Deepfakes to be indistinguishable from reality as early as 2024, report warns - Fox News
• Top AI photo generators produce misleading election-related images, study finds - CNN

Information Literacy Tips

Stop the Spread 

Far too many people act as if their individual choices don't matter in this world. But they do. A small group of people taking time to critically evaluate the content they find online can help protect countless people from misinformation.

More Resources in the Montgomery Library Guides:

→Go to Next Page: Propaganda and Bias in Plain Sight