Probably not what you're looking for, but it's really hard to change minds outside your sphere of influence. I've focused on the problematic people in my life who have had their perspectives...
Probably not what you're looking for, but it's really hard to change minds outside your sphere of influence. I've focused on the problematic people in my life who have had their perspectives attuned by disinformation. I have a friend from South Carolina who's parents live close to Asheville and spent about an hour talking through all the disinformation claims he had clung to. The conversation ended up feeling like I was on the therapist side of one of my couples counseling sessions.
"Well I don't think FEMA is completely corrupt, it's pretty impressive that they were able to get your parents power restored after 4 days. Yes, it is frustrating to not have power, but that is absurdly quick given the scale of the crisis. True, some FEMA funds went to support migration and asylum cases at the boarder, but that's a very small comparative amount to what FEMA needs for this disaster. And if I'm remembering right, underfunded boarder security and containment you were very passionate about recently...."
It doesn't always, or even often, change his mind; but I think there has to be a foundation of trust and respect to even have the discussion. Those two factors are missing from most online spaces. If folks have the bandwidth, I'd suggest nudges away from the disinformation. It can be an unpleasant task, but the opposite is leaving them to sit in an echo chamber and let the misinformation build upon itself.
I think dangerous lies and rumors about people are unfortunately a part of our culture, and it has stayed with human society for it's existence. 100 or so years ago, you had sensationalist...
I think dangerous lies and rumors about people are unfortunately a part of our culture, and it has stayed with human society for it's existence. 100 or so years ago, you had sensationalist journalism, propaganda, yellow journalism, etc - now it's the same deal but we have access to phones and computers. The psychology has not changed, but the technology has.
I do think de-regulation and social media awareness are good places to start, and less people using social media compulsively or maybe having a set time to do so would be a good start. But otherwise, there isn't too much you can do about it. It is a relatively new thing in our society to have a stream of content at your fingertips, and the closest we had to that beforehand was the newspaper and television.
This is a problem time immemorial. Humans are imperfect even when attempting to do the right thing and express solely the truth as supported by evidence. We cannot avoid fucking up. Add in...
This is a problem time immemorial. Humans are imperfect even when attempting to do the right thing and express solely the truth as supported by evidence. We cannot avoid fucking up. Add in brutally insufficient education and people willing to lie for their own benefit.
We can only attempt to bolster our institutions and pray those with a vested interest in their destruction don't break them.
Practically speaking, we can't stop other people from posting this stuff. Maybe an alternative goal would be to find and share news from more reliable sources? The trouble is, even unreliable...
Practically speaking, we can't stop other people from posting this stuff. Maybe an alternative goal would be to find and share news from more reliable sources?
The trouble is, even unreliable rumors are sometimes useful as a source of hints.
The rumors maybe but taking over local people's Facebook accounts to add credibility to these rumors? Is there anything that can be done about that besides complaining to Facebook?
The rumors maybe but taking over local people's Facebook accounts to add credibility to these rumors? Is there anything that can be done about that besides complaining to Facebook?
Unfortunately, I think that's Facebook's mess to clean up. Based on news reports, there is widespread knowledge that there's a lot of misinformation going around, so I guess that's something.
Unfortunately, I think that's Facebook's mess to clean up. Based on news reports, there is widespread knowledge that there's a lot of misinformation going around, so I guess that's something.
Thinking like a lawyer here but typically there isn't a monetary value to misinformation online. In this case, fraudulent accounts are being used to deny people reimbursement for the value of...
Thinking like a lawyer here but typically there isn't a monetary value to misinformation online.
In this case, fraudulent accounts are being used to deny people reimbursement for the value of their houses and other storm related costs from FEMA. If the bad actors could be identified I think they could be sued and or prosecuted.
Probably not what you're looking for, but it's really hard to change minds outside your sphere of influence. I've focused on the problematic people in my life who have had their perspectives attuned by disinformation. I have a friend from South Carolina who's parents live close to Asheville and spent about an hour talking through all the disinformation claims he had clung to. The conversation ended up feeling like I was on the therapist side of one of my couples counseling sessions.
"Well I don't think FEMA is completely corrupt, it's pretty impressive that they were able to get your parents power restored after 4 days. Yes, it is frustrating to not have power, but that is absurdly quick given the scale of the crisis. True, some FEMA funds went to support migration and asylum cases at the boarder, but that's a very small comparative amount to what FEMA needs for this disaster. And if I'm remembering right, underfunded boarder security and containment you were very passionate about recently...."
It doesn't always, or even often, change his mind; but I think there has to be a foundation of trust and respect to even have the discussion. Those two factors are missing from most online spaces. If folks have the bandwidth, I'd suggest nudges away from the disinformation. It can be an unpleasant task, but the opposite is leaving them to sit in an echo chamber and let the misinformation build upon itself.
I think dangerous lies and rumors about people are unfortunately a part of our culture, and it has stayed with human society for it's existence. 100 or so years ago, you had sensationalist journalism, propaganda, yellow journalism, etc - now it's the same deal but we have access to phones and computers. The psychology has not changed, but the technology has.
I do think de-regulation and social media awareness are good places to start, and less people using social media compulsively or maybe having a set time to do so would be a good start. But otherwise, there isn't too much you can do about it. It is a relatively new thing in our society to have a stream of content at your fingertips, and the closest we had to that beforehand was the newspaper and television.
Make an example out of Elon Musk, preferably with hefty fines, and put his social media site under responsible ownership. It's a start.
This is a problem time immemorial. Humans are imperfect even when attempting to do the right thing and express solely the truth as supported by evidence. We cannot avoid fucking up. Add in brutally insufficient education and people willing to lie for their own benefit.
We can only attempt to bolster our institutions and pray those with a vested interest in their destruction don't break them.
Practically speaking, we can't stop other people from posting this stuff. Maybe an alternative goal would be to find and share news from more reliable sources?
The trouble is, even unreliable rumors are sometimes useful as a source of hints.
The rumors maybe but taking over local people's Facebook accounts to add credibility to these rumors? Is there anything that can be done about that besides complaining to Facebook?
Unfortunately, I think that's Facebook's mess to clean up. Based on news reports, there is widespread knowledge that there's a lot of misinformation going around, so I guess that's something.
Thinking like a lawyer here but typically there isn't a monetary value to misinformation online.
In this case, fraudulent accounts are being used to deny people reimbursement for the value of their houses and other storm related costs from FEMA. If the bad actors could be identified I think they could be sued and or prosecuted.