The Washington Post-Mosquitoes a disinformation campaign by China and other news literacy lessons

2023-09-21T16:21:51.456Z

Here’s the latest installment of a feature I’ve been running for several years: lessons from the nonprofit, nonpartisan News Literacy Project (NLP) that aim to teach students and the public how to sort fact from fiction in our digital — and contentious — age. With the spread of rumors, baseless accusations and disinformation on social and partisan media sites, there has not been a time in recent U.S. history when this skill has been as important as it is now.

The material in this post comes from the Sift, the organization’s newsletter for educators, which has more than 10,000 readers. Published weekly during the school year, it explores timely examples of misinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics, looks at social media trends and issues, and includes discussion prompts and activities for the classroom.

Get Smart About News, modeled on the Sift, is a free weekly newsletter for the public. NLP has a free e-learning platform, Checkology, that helps educators teach middle and high school students how to identify credible information, seek reliable sources and know what to trust, what to dismiss and what to debunk. It also gives students an appreciation of the importance of the First Amendment and a free press.

Checkology and all of the NLP’s resources and programs are free. Since 2017, more than 475,000 students have used the platform. The organization has worked with more than 60,000 educators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and more than 120 countries.

Here’s material from this week’s issue of the Sift:

Dig deeper: Don’t miss this week’s classroom-ready resource.

Top picks

It’s not always clear when social media influencers are being paid for their posts.

1. Dietitians are being paid to post videos on TikTok and Instagram promoting sugar, aspartame and dietary supplements, according to an analysis by the Examination and The Washington Post. The Canadian Sugar Institute and American Beverage, which represents PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, are among the trade and lobbying groups paying influencer registered dietitians to push products in posts that often include unproven claims and questionable messages about nutrition and healthy eating. While it’s not uncommon for social media influencers with large followings to partner with companies and brands to create paid content, the investigation found that many dietitians did not make clear their connections with the food and beverage industry.

• Discuss: How can you tell if content on social media is an ad or not? Why would lobbying groups pay influencers to encourage their followers to eat sugary foods, aspartame and dietary supplements? Why is it important for people to know when they’re encountering an advertisement? How can you verify whether health information online is accurate?

• Idea: As a class, watch one of the sponsored ad examples featured in the article and discuss the message it’s delivering: Who paid for it? Can you tell it’s an ad? Would you say the advertising has been responsibly and clearly labeled?

• Resources: “Branded Content” and “Be Health Informed” (NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom).

• Related: “A wellness coach claims she can fix people’s vision. An anti-misinformation TikToker isn’t having it.” (Emily Bloch, the Philadelphia Inquirer).

Dig Deeper: Use this think sheet to better understand paid partnerships with social media influencers.

2. A coordinated disinformation campaign by China spread bogus AI-generated content and disinformation online about the devastating wildfires in Hawaii last month, adopting themes and tactics from similar Russian operations. This approach, researchers say, represents a notable shift for Chinese disinformation campaigns, which have previously focused on supporting China’s own policies rather than stoking divisions in the United States. Researchers from several organizations, including Microsoft, NewsGuard and the RAND Corporation, identified the network of social media accounts China built and suggested it may be used for future influence operations — like the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

• Discuss: How can disinformation be used to sow discord in the United States and other countries? Why do you think natural disasters are a target for mis- and disinformation? How do you determine whether climate information on social media is accurate? How do you think AI will affect climate misinformation online?

• Resource: “Misinformation” (Checkology virtual classroom).

• Related:

- “Falsehoods follow close behind this summer’s natural disasters” (Tiffany Hsu, the New York Times).

- “Climate disasters are on the rise. So is disinformation.” (Kristoffer Tigue, Mother Jones).

- “China targets U.S. voters With new AI misinformation techniques” (Emma Woollacott, Forbes).

3. Should the government contact tech companies about content moderation? Not according to a federal appeals court ruling Sept. 8, which found that the Biden administration probably violated the First Amendment when pressuring social media companies to limit misinformation about topics such as the coronavirus and vaccines. The court wrote: “Social-media platforms’ content-moderation decisions must be theirs and theirs alone.”

• Discuss: Do you agree with the court ruling? Why or why not? How much sway do you think the government should have over what people post on social media? How can social media content be moderated for harmful or false information?

• Related:

- “How much control should a government have over citizens’ social media content?” (Michel Martin, NPR).

- “Court eases curbs on Biden administration’s contacts with social media firms” (Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters).

• Resource: “The First Amendment” (Checkology virtual classroom).

RumorGuard rundown

You can find this week’s rumor examples to use with students in these slides.

No, videos don’t show genetically modified mosquitoes being dropped from the sky

NO: The video referenced above does not show mosquitoes being dropped from a helicopter, and an additional video does not show them being dropped from a plane.

YES: One clip probably shows a gender reveal party, while the other shows smoke being released during an air show in Cincinnati on Sept. 3.

YES: Mosquitoes that were genetically modified to reduce the mosquito population have been approved to be released (via boxes on the ground) in Florida and Texas as part of a disease control effort.

YES: These videos were used to further conspiratorial and false claims that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates funded the initiative to spread disease and push his alleged depopulation efforts.

NewsLit takeaway: False claims are often built on previously laid tropes and narratives. A video of smoke billowing from a helicopter may not seem suspicious to most internet users, but those who have been exposed to repeated false claims about population control and Gates may be tempted to believe these clips show mosquitoes being secretly released. News literacy skills, such as reverse image searches, lateral reading and critical thinking, can prevent people from falling into these conspiratorial rabbit holes.

Video of art exhibit misrepresented as showing odd new airline seat

NO: A video does not show a new type of passenger airline seat.

YES: It is footage of an art sculpture, “Premium Economy” by Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg, exhibited at a New York City gallery this year.

YES: Airlines have been squeezing passengers by reducing leg room and adding seats without expanding cabins over the past 15 years.

NewsLit takeaway: Removing interesting and genuine footage from its original context and sharing it as if it pertained to a trending discussion is a surefire way for purveyors of misinformation to get clicks and views. Fortunately, these mislabeled visuals are typically easy to put back into their original context with a quick reverse image search. In this case, the Associated Press traced the footage back to an art gallery and received a comment from the gallery owner, saying: “This is definitely not true! It is an artwork!” This false claim may have seemed genuine to some viewers because airlines have been reducing the size of economy airline seats. The idea of odd seating is not new — such as with double-decker seats — but there’s no evidence airlines are going to start using these seats anytime soon. Still, some people may find themselves asking, “If the airlines would do this, what else might they do?” This thinking is known as a slippery slope, a fallacious argument that says the occurrence of one event will lead to more extreme events, and it is frequently exploited by misinformation.

Kickers

• It’s cool to read the print newspaper, according to Kelsey Russell, a Gen Z influencer and graduate student on TikTok. Under the handle @kelscruss, she creates viral videos sharing her experience reading local papers, the New York Times and more.

• California K-12 students may soon be required to learn media literacy after state legislators passed with bipartisan support bill A.B. 873. The author of the bill and education experts discuss in this KPBS radio show why recognizing credible news online is an essential skill in today’s information landscape.

• As AI makes a bumpy entrance into K-12 schools, some educators are raising concerns about equity and racial bias in the technology.

• Wikipedia excerpts are starting to appear on some TikTok search results pages as users continue to use the platform like a search engine.

• How do social media likes and retweets influence people’s views on policy issues? Overall, not so much, researchers found — unless they actively used Facebook or X for more than an hour a day.

• A mushroom guidebook should give accurate advice on which mushrooms are edible or poisonous, but that’s not the case with a guide recently removed from Amazon — part of a growing problem with some AI-generated books for sale, which not only contain inaccurate information but also use tools trained on copyrighted works of writers and artists.

• What Swiftie wouldn’t enjoy this beat? Two job ads for reporters exclusively covering pop stars Taylor Swift and Beyoncé were posted by Gannett in a move that attracted criticism in light of the newspaper company’s shrinking workforce and recent layoffs of journalists in local newsrooms.

• New York City is often considered the media capital of the world, but less than 27 percent of NYC high schools have a student newspaper. Students of color address the inequities in this podcast and how they pursue journalism despite the lack of student papers.

• New social media platform Threads has blocked searches related to the coronavirus and vaccines, just as a new wave of cases and baseless claims emerged.