Slide

Deck 5:
Online Verification Skills
Is this a castle
house in
Ireland?

Yes or no?
Write down your answer?
Did a
squirrel
get
prosthetic
wheels?

Yes or no?
Write down your answer?
Did world
leaders
huddle
around
Russian
President
Putin?

Yes or no?
Write down your answer?
 Discussion
Do you always believe what you see online?
How do you know what you see online is
true?
Have you ever been fooled?
What criteria do you use to assess if
something is true or trustworthy?
Fact-check
This is Ko
Tapu, an
island in
Thailand,
which does
not include a
castle
 Fact-check

This Turkish squirrel lost its

paws in a mouse trap, and did,
in fact, get prosthetic wheels
Fact-check

Vladimir Putin
was digitally
added to this
photo
 What is ‘fake news’?

The term ‘fake news’ has become a

popular word but there is a debate about
what it means since the term is used by
people for different reasons
 What is ‘information pollution’
• There are many types of false and poor-quality
information that circulate online
• This larger problem is called ‘information pollution’
• The online environment is huge and complex
• It is hard to figure out where information is coming
from and whether it is real or truthful
 False information online
• The internet makes it easy to create wrong
information, and for it to spread quickly. There are
two main types:
• Misinformation is false information, but the person
sharing it believes it to be true. Its intent is not to
cause harm.
• Disinformation is false information that is
deliberately created and shared to cause harm. It
has the goal of confusing people about what is true,
and influencing how they think and act.
Misinformation
 Disinformation
False information
can be designed to
mislead and
achieve a political
goal.

For example, telling

people they can Disinformation from 2016 US presidential election
vote through
Twitter.
 Why do people create false
information?

• Financial Reasons: One big motive is to make money

through page views (clicks) and advertising dollars

• Political Reasons: Another reason is to mislead

people and to encourage them to adopt certain
political attitudes and behaviours
 How does false information spread?
• Those who produce false or misleading reports know
content that provokes a strong emotion makes us want
to share without fact-checking first

• The mechanics of social media also contribute to the

problem by showing what is popular. People share
wrong posts, making them even more popular
 The future of fake
• These faces were created by artificial intelligence
• ‘Deep voice’ computer programs allow people’s voices to
be convincingly faked
• ‘Deep fake’ videos, which show people saying things they
didn’t say, are hard to produce, but will get better/easier
• It will only become more difficult to know what is true
online
 What can we do?

All is not lost! There are many skills to teach and learn in order to combat
these trends in how we interact with information:

• Think critically about what we see online

• Assess our emotions and stop to check before sharing information
• Learn the tools to fact-check information
• Develop the habits to verify sources and claims
• Establish a trusted list of information and news sources