TABLE OF CONTENTS
YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE FROM MISINFORMATION
MISINFORMATION LEADS TO REAL WORLD ACTION
CHINA, RUSSIA, FACEBOOK, AND QANON?
ARIZONA AUDIT
RANSOMWARE ATTACK SHUTS DOWN PIPELINE
RESOURCES WE RECOMMEND
FUN WITH FACT CHECKS
Prism Metanews is a media company founded to help Americans become better consumers of the news. We have built an anti-misinformation ethos and commitment to improving our audience’s media literacy into our business model from the ground up, not as an afterthought. Learn more about who we are and what we’re doing on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
THEME OF THE WEEK
Each Prism Metanewsletter will be organized around a single theme. For this inaugural volume, the themes are going to be very straightforward, even modest, in the takeaways we hope to communicate.
The second thing you need to know about misinformation is that none of us are immune to misinformation. Not you. Not us. You take care to keep yourself grounded in reality, right? And you try to associate with people who aren’t too “out there.” So it’s tempting to think that misinformation will be a nonfactor in your life. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
Last time we established that misinformation is all around us. This edition, we are highlighting how misinformation can sneak into individual and collective consciousnesses, often without us realizing. It can lead normal people to do dumb and dangerous things in the real world. It can prompt hysterical reactions and a mob mentality. It can wreck relationships and poison communities. People all along the ideological spectrum are susceptible to it.
Motivated reasoning can be a factor, for example when you stand to benefit politically or economically if the false assertion were true. Failure to engage the critical thinking part of the brain skills plays a role. Studies have found that simple inattentiveness is actually to blame for the spread of many falsehoods; some people share wrong information without giving it much thought at all, when if they took a moment to evaluate they could judge its accuracy correctly and not repost it.
There is good news, though: the problems described above are ones that individuals can help fix in themselves, and society can do a lot more to encourage individuals in this direction. There is hope, and a clear path forward. With consistent effort, you, Prism, and others can move the needle and get us on a better footing. Misinformation will still be out there, but more of us will be aware of how it works, quick to recognize it, and better equipped to swat it away before it influences us or those around us.
In this edition we look at recent evidence confirming that all kinds of people fall for the misinformation that crops up alongside most major news events. We believe that making anti-misinformation an explicit part of the consumption of information is one important way to strengthen our country against its effects. Like and share if you agree!
THIS WEEK IN MISINFORMATION
#misinformationatwork #001: Misinformation leads to real world action
A couple notable events from the past month serve as reminders that misinformation detaches people from reality and makes people do dangerous and harmful things—to their loved ones and strangers alike.
In London, thousands of people descended on Parliament to protest against COVID-19 public health measures, including a strong contingent with placards calling the pandemic a hoax and making unsubstantiated claims about the safety of approved vaccines. Anger over COVID-19-related restrictions had previously already brought people in the UK and across Europe into the streets a month before, where they advanced conspiracy theories and advocated for noncompliance with official recommendations to stay masked and distanced and to get vaccinated. This advocacy, contrary to the stated goal, has probably prolonged the period over which restrictions might be needed.
Rallies against human trafficking in Hollywood came back around last month. For the last couple years this has been a perennial favorite of QAnon and others who falsely believe that the real problem of child sex trafficking is on a sharp upswing (it isn’t).
Failing to deal with misinformation will likely lead to more of this, and worse.
If it weren’t for misinformation, three small children might still be alive in Reseda, California. Instead, in April their mother—who came to believe the kids were being pulled into a a nonexistent sex-trafficking ring involving most of her city—killed them and tried to flee the scene before being caught and arrested.
In February a mother in New Hampshire, apparently inspired by QAnon beliefs, is reported to have locked her small son and daughter in a closet in her house, set a fire, and waited for them to die. (The local fire chief happened to pass by the home and rushed his squad to the scene, saving the kids.)
Conspiracy theory-linked kidnappings have been reported in France, Colorado, Kentucky, and Utah.
As of late May, at least 79 QAnon adherents had been raised on criminal charges, including about half related to the storming of the Capitol on 6 January. Two were men who had attacked the same neighborhood pizza parlor in Washington, DC., one of whom did so carrying a loaded gun.
As we covered in the last edition, misinformation about the safety of the approved vaccines is making people reluctant to be immunized against COVID-19, making everyone less safe.
In the United Kingdom, arsonists damaged 77 telecommunications towers in the spring of 2020 because misinformation had circulated that 5G radiation could harm humans, including by infecting them with novel coronavirus. We could go on.
What you can do: Dig a little when a loved one begins to share odd messages directly to you, in family chats, or via social media to find out what is behind it. Millions of people in the United States believe in some really wrong things, according to polls and the experts who study this, and your family member might well be at risk. Keep up on big trends in misinformation (Prism can help!) so you can make connections if there are any. Most people who fall for misinformation do not hurt anyone or destroy property, or even go to a rally to persuade others to think like them. But being aware and catching this mindset early can help avoid less serious outcomes, too. Seek out assistance if something needs to be done and you aren’t sure what, or how.
China, Russia, Facebook, and QAnon?
Yahoo! News published a story saying that Chinese and Russian “administrators” of Facebook groups originated “nearly one-fifth” of all Q-Anon related posts, but there is little reason to believe that foreign governments or organizations are behind the conspiracy theory or its rapid growth in the U.S.
For one thing, the methodology of the study cited in the story is not terribly robust or straightforward. as misinformation researcher Marc-André Argentino (@_MAArgentino) pointed out in a detailed Twitter thread.
Others who have investigated the Q phenomenon have simply not given much credence to the notion that foreign powers should be credited with creating QAnon. Filmmaker Cullen Hoback, for example, chronicled the movement over many years, and his recent documentary points squarely at Ron Watkins—who admins the imageboard where Q posts—as being the author of at least some of those posts since 2018.
Q has not posted since shortly after the election, causing “who is behind Q” to fade in importance as a question. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t help anyone to falsely point the finger at China or Russia unless we get a good amount more corroboration for that claim.
What you can do: First, focus less on the perpetrators of specific disinformation campaigns, which less practical than strengthening yourself and the people you can reach against all kinds of misinformation. The former is whack-a-mole, while the latter is our only realistic way out of this mess. Second, remember that studies are only as reliable as the people who design and run them, so be on guard. Most of the time, more numbers does not correlate with more certainty.
BETWEEN THE (HEAD)LINES
Arizona audit
What happened?
The Republican-controlled State Senate of Arizona won a lawsuit to obtain the ballots of millions of Arizonans living in Maricopa County and hired a company called Cyber Ninjas (really) to audit the ballots and report back irregularities if any are found.
The Ninjas, having never audited an election before, asked the County for routers and a laundry list of other things and then got busy checking each ballot for... traces of bamboo (we’ll explain below!).
The list of groups and officials opposed to the audit has grown steadily. For reasons—ranging from improper handling of the ballots to implications for law enforcement to the national embarrassment it has become for the state of Arizona—the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Republican sheriff of Maricopa County, Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Republican lawmakers in the State Senate, including at least one who initially supported it, and the U.S. Department of Justice, among others, have come out against the audit.
How was it covered?
Center/Least bias: Associated Press. Reuters.
Right bias: Wall Street Journal. National Review.
Left bias: Washington Post. New York Times.CNN.
What related misinformation circulated? The calls for the audit are essentially based in a false understanding--or perhaps a hopeful misunderstanding--of how the election was conducted.
The elected officials who launched it appear to be genuine in their belief in the misinformation that has surrounded the broader election, and Arizona in particular. For example, the president of the State Senate wrote a letter in early May asking the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to answer questions on three “serious issues,” but the letter prefaces its questions with patently false assertions.
Former president Donald Trump issued a statement rephrasing one of the letter’s incorrect claims about a “database” being deleted before auditors got their hands on it. (Turned out the auditors had configured it wrong, which one of the contractors more or less admitted—a nuance that didn’t get as much attention after being made known as the original false claim!)
The people who are paying for the audit (only the first $150,000 was appropriated by the Arizona State Senate) still maintain that the election was massively fraudulent and seem to hope the audit will produce evidence of their prior belief.
The company conducting it is led by people who have publicly promoted known, debunked conspiracy theories about the election. As have some of the people serving as advisors to the audit officials. A state lawmaker who lost his election in November, and who later spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally and was seen at the storming of the Capitol on 6 January, is one of the people checking the ballots.
The online community most vocally supportive of the audit are influencers of the deepest corners of QAnon, who all promote the wider false narrative that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. The theory is that 40,000 ballots, enough to flip the state to Biden, were brought to Arizona from China—hence the bamboo fiber fixation—and that when this is discovered Arizona’s electoral votes will return to the Trump column and other battleground states will follow like dominoes. Trump himself has picked up on this notion and hinted at it in recent public remarks.
Ransomware attack shuts down pipeline
What happened?
Criminal hackers took control of the computer systems of the Colonial Pipeline, which delivers gasoline to a large section of the East Coast of the United States. The operators of the pipeline decided to shut down operations until they could regain control.
Government officials tried to reallocate resources from elsewhere and address fears that gas would soon be completely unavailable in some areas, but many people ignored this and ran out to hoard gas for their vehicles anyway. There were widespread temporary shortfalls.
The company eventually paid $4.4 million in ransom to the perpetrators of the cyber attack, regained control of their systems, and resumed pipeline operations. The gasoline started flowing again, resolving the shortages.
How was it covered?
Center/Least bias: Associated Press. Reuters.
Right bias: Fox News. Wall Street Journal.
Industry: World Oil.
What related misinformation circulated?
In the early phase of the pipeline shutdown, The New York Times said in a Twitter post that it had caused “no shortages or lines” at gas stations, but this was false even at the time (h/t AllSides via Instagram). As of this writing, the Times has not taken down this tweet, from 11 May.
Rumors about shortages, however, did prompt runs on gas stations as people scrambled for fuel… which brought the rumors to pass faster than they would have if people had not behaved this way (h/t @MrSilva via Twitter).
Reports that people were filling the wrong kinds of containers with gasoline prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to tweet out guidance to “not fill plastic bags with gasoline,” but it’s hard to tell if this was justified. Many of the images published alongside such reports were almost certainly fake or staged (h/t @KolinaKoltai via Twitter).
Waaaay out there, you could also find a former Florida congressional candidate suggesting that the cyber attack had been faked, a false flag to make it seem like high gas prices were not the fault of President Biden. He cited no evidence that this could even possibly be the case.
RESOURCES WE RECOMMEND
As new tools and knowledge come out, or if they are old and we just feel like featuring them because they are awesome, we’ll let you know about them here.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue released a series of papers discussing today's challenges and opportunities in designing digital policy to tackle online disinformation, hate and extremism, and protect human rights in democracies. LINK
A new app called Shiny helps you see how you compare to others, for example people in Congress, with regard to the sharing of false information on Twitter (interesting work, @steverathje2!). LINK
A panel with @noupside, @bostonjoan, and other technology and communications experts discussed the latest research in disinformation and the actions local, state and federal leaders can take to counter the influence and impact of online and off-line disinformation. LINK
A free, self-paced course on how to teach students to skillfully reason about websites, viral videos, social media posts, and more by the Stanford History Education Group (@SHEG_Stanford) went live. LINK
FUN WITH FACT CHECKS
Sometimes misinformation is so ridiculous, all you can do is laugh.
Kamala Harris’ children’s book is not in ‘welcome packs’ for migrants (USA Today)
Did a Megalodon Stalk a Cruise Ship? (Snopes)
If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much! We could use your help making this thing better; here’s a survey link to register your reaction!