Israel-Hamas war: How to sort truth from disinformation
Misinformation about the war in Israel is flooding social media. It’s making it difficult to sort fact from fiction in a war many in the U.S. already know little about.
While there has been plenty of real verified imagery and accounts of the airstrikes and bombings, they have been intermingled with false claims. One was a doctored White House memo claiming to show President Joe Biden announcing billions in aid for Israel.
Even mainstream news outlets have been duped. Unverified reports of babies being beheaded were circulating, and CNN had to make a correction that they were not able to confirm it was true.
Already the information pouring in at your fingertips can be overwhelming during a time like this. To help sort it out, MPR News guest host Emily Bright spoke with Emily Vraga. Vraga is an associate professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota and studies mis- and disinformation.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
What’s the difference between misinformation and disinformation?
Both misinformation and disinformation deal with things that are not accurate, things that we can’t prove to be true or that we know to be false. The difference is misinformation is unintentional, while disinformation is something that someone knows to be false and is still spreading to achieve some kind of political, social or financial gain.
Why do we see disinformation during war?
There’s a lot of people who really want to get their point of view across and to persuade people that they are on the right side. Propaganda has always been a part of war and disinformation is part of that. Sometimes it goes beyond just revealing facts to actually spread things that they know to be false.
Disinformation is a type of propaganda where people are going beyond just crafting messages that are persuasive, trying to represent only one viewpoint in a very limited way, to actually sharing things that are inaccurate.
Many people get their news and information on social media. What should they look for?
We need to be really careful when we’re on social media, and to think about where the information is coming from and who stands to gain from it. People in general want to be accurate, they want to be right. But when we’re on social media, we don’t always have that desire at the top of our mind.
I just encourage people to continue to remind themselves that it’s really important to verify whether the information is something we can trust before sharing it or allow it to affect our beliefs about a topic.
Tips for spotting misinformation or disinformation online
Question anything that is really, highly emotional. If there’s something that is really trying to tug at our heartstrings, that is doing so to advance a particular viewpoint, that’s a time when we should be more skeptical.
Really look at the source of the information. If there is a source provided, double check it. And if there isn’t a source, that's a reason to maybe be skeptical as well and see if you can find other sources that you do trust or reporting on that topic.
Remind yourself that when we start looking at social media that we want to be accurate, we want to be making sure we are relying on the best information, not necessarily on things that make us feel good or feel bad, or really tap into our identity. Putting accuracy at the front of our mind can help us remember to use the tools that I think most of us know we can use effectively.
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Audio transcript
Even mainstream news outlets have been duped. Unverified reports of babies being beheaded were circulating. And CNN had to make a correction that they were not able to confirm that it was true.
Already, the information pouring in at your fingertips can be overwhelming during a time like this. So here to help us sort it out is Emily Vraga. She's an Associate Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism at the U and studies mis and disinformation. Emily, thanks for being with us today.
EMILY VRAGA: Thank you for having me.
EMILY BRIGHT: All right, two Emilys. I love this. So can you first define for listeners the difference between mis and disinformation?
EMILY VRAGA: So both mis and disinformation deal with things that are not accurate, things that we can't prove to be true or that we know to be false. The difference is misinformation is unintentional where disinformation is something that someone knows to be false and is still spreading it to achieve some kind of political, social, financial aim.
EMILY BRIGHT: And why doing war do we see this hotbed of disinformation?
EMILY VRAGA: Well, during war there's a lot of people who really want to get their point of view across to persuade people that they are on the right side. And so propaganda always been a part of war. And disinformation is part of that. Sometimes it goes beyond just manipulating facts to actually spreading things that they know to be false.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Where do we overlap between propaganda and disinformation?
EMILY VRAGA: Disinformation is a type of propaganda. It is one where people are going beyond just crafting messages that are persuasive, trying to represent only one viewpoint in a very limited way to actually sharing things that are inaccurate.
EMILY BRIGHT: OK, so social media, it's where a lot of people go to get news and information. And during this war, it feels almost overwhelming, I mean, especially if you aren't familiar with the conflict between Israel and Palestine when you're trying to figure out where Gaza is on a map maybe. So on the other hand, what are good sources to get accurate information during a time like this?
EMILY VRAGA: The best sources to get accurate information are the ones that are deeply committed to sharing verified information. So the news media for all the mistakes that you highlighted really does its best to make sure that the information they are sharing is the information they can verify, that they can check multiple sources, that they can see that it's true themselves. Government agencies also in general are going to be trying to do that, especially those that are a little bit more removed from the conflict.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, I know the BBC has done a fantastic job of having reporters on the ground. What advice can you give to people to just improve their news consumption habits to make sure they're getting good information?
EMILY VRAGA: I think we need to be really careful when we're on social media to think about where the information is coming from and who stands to gain from it. People in general want to be accurate. They want to be right. But when we're on social media, we don't have that desire at the top of our mind. We're thinking about the social gains that we want to get out of it. We're thinking about identity. So I just encourage people to continue to remind themselves that it's really important to verify whether the information is something we can trust before sharing it or allowing it to affect our beliefs about a topic.
EMILY BRIGHT: And I know we've been talking about social media in general. But we really should zero in on X formerly known as Twitter. How has that made disinformation spread more easily?
EMILY VRAGA: So there have been several reports that suggest changes to the infrastructure at X especially in terms of reducing the Trust and Safety Team, whose task it was to really moderate mis and disinformation on platform, is hindering their ability to do so effectively. And so when you remove some of those safeguards, when you remove some of the people whose job it is to really stay up to date and make sure that the information circulating is of the highest quality, you're going to see more mis and disinformation more easily circulating.
EMILY BRIGHT: Can disinformation have an impact on the war itself?
EMILY VRAGA: Certainly, if it starts changing public perceptions. War remains something that requires large populations to support, whether it's actively supporting by serving, whether it's supporting by donating money, whether it's supporting by being behind a particular candidate or policy. And so if public support changes, it really could impact the course of the war. And that's true both for people who are directly involved in the conflict as well as other countries like the US who are involved in trying to mediate between the two countries.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, absolutely. So I would really love to get your tips for spotting misinformation or disinformation. What are some things that we should be on the lookout for?
EMILY VRAGA: So the first thing is looking for anything that is really highly emotional. That's a little bit trickier when it comes to war. It's necessarily going to be emotional. But if there's something that is really trying to tug at our heartstrings that is doing so to advance a particular viewpoint, that's a time when we can be more skeptical.
Second, I think really looking at the source of the information. So if there is a source provided, double checking. You mentioned that there's a false BBC report that was made up. And so if you go to the BBC, you would have immediately learned, oh, that actually wasn't them.
And if there isn't a source, that's a reason to maybe be skeptical as well and see if you can find other sources that you do trust who are reporting on that topic as well. So triangulation, finding multiple people who are talking about that often gives us a higher sense that something is or is not credible.
EMILY BRIGHT: All right, so emotion, triangulation, and checking your sources, am I repeating the list properly?
EMILY VRAGA: Yeah, that's definitely right, and then I think the last thing is lest about any one specific piece of misinformation but just kind of self-reflecting and reminding yourself when we start looking at social media that we want to be accurate. We want to be making sure we are relying on the best information, not necessarily on things that make us feel good or feel bad or really tap into our identity. So putting accuracy at the front of our mind can help us remember to use the tools that I think most of us know we can use effectively.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, just keeping that little accuracy check in mind. And you say emotion. And I'm going to guess that maybe anger would be the one that you particularly have to watch out for. You see something. You get angry. And you're like, oh, I have to share this, or I can't believe this is true. Have you seen this? Is that or are all emotions something to watch out for or just or that-- is there one in particular?
EMILY VRAGA: I think all emotions are ones to look out for. But anger is a particularly powerful motivator because it kind of short circuits some of the other processes that we often go through and leads us to want to take action, whether it's to share it, whether it's to tell your friends, hey, have you seen this. So anger is one to be really cognizant of and be wary before we take action without thinking it through.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. Well, Emily, thank you so much for your time and helping us kind of slow down and talk through some of these information.
EMILY VRAGA: Thanks for having me.
EMILY BRIGHT: Emily Vraga is an associate professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism at the U who studies mis and disinformation.
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