Some misinformation is easy to spot, but other posts or articles are designed to look as real as possible, making it difficult to distinguish what’s true and what’s not.

With the Covid-19 pandemic and multiple global conflicts in recent years, there has been an increase in the amount of misinformation being shared in Ireland and beyond.

Here are some things to bear in mind when considering if information is true or not:

• What/who is the source?: Does the information come from a reputable source? Is there proof to back up whatever claim is being made?
• Read more than the headline: Many people share an article without reading it all 
• Check the details and date: Some stories are not completely fake, but are distortions of previous events.
• How does it make you feel?: Is the post designed to make you angry or scared or shocked?
• Ask yourself, ‘Is this a joke?’: Satire is sometimes mistaken for actual news.
• Seek out the original source

Joe Galvin is an open-source intelligence (OSINT) expert who verifies information online as part of his job. He told us the most important thing to seek out when deciphering if information is true or not is the original source.

“If you find yourself reading phrases like ‘according to x’ or ‘it has been reported’ or ‘it is claimed that’, that should be ringing alarm bells immediately, so always look for the primary source of information if you can,” he explained. 

“If a report or a tweet says that something has happened in such a place, can you find out who first mentioned that? Can you find who reported that?”

Galvin acknowledged that “a lot of people don’t have the time to do that”, but said the process doesn’t have to take long.

“As a general rule, when you see information being shared, ask yourself, is it from the original source?

“Is it a primary source? Is it someone that witnessed it? Is it someone that was on the scene? Is it someone that’s connected in some way to what the information is? And if not, think twice about it.”

How does it make you feel?

Galvin said another good rule of thumb is to ask yourself how a certain piece of information makes you feel.

“Do you want to share it immediately? Is it designed in such a way that makes it immediately shareable? Does it provoke strong emotions in you? Particularly emotions of fear or disgust or things like that.

“Is it portrayed in such a way to make you feel a strong visceral reaction? Is it shocking? Is it something that just demands to be shared? Instantaneous reactions are the worst, you share before you think.”

Galvin said fear can also be “a big motivator ” when sharing misinformation.

“There are different types and different motivations behind misinformation, sometimes people are doing this for the lols, as they say, other times people are doing it for more nefarious reasons.”

‘The army will be on the streets’ 

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people were worried about what lockdown measures would be implemented.

Inaccurate messages claiming that the army would be patrolling the streets and guarding shops were widely shared on various platforms but on WhatsApp in particular – we debunked these claims back in March 2020.

Galvin said once you’re confronted with information like that, ask yourself: “Who is saying it? Is it a primary source?

“Can we find a statement on the army’s website or from an official source to corroborate what we’re seeing here? And if we can’t, maybe we should think twice.”

Galvin said part of the reason misinformation often spreads so quickly is because “people love rumours, they love gossip, and they like to feel like they’re on the inside track”.

“That’s what’s attractive about WhatsApp – it has the feel of something intimate and personal, like you’re getting privileged information when in fact it’s just being sent everywhere.

“There is an attractiveness to this misinformation too, that is the challenge.”

Galvin called on people to “question what you read and what you see at all times”.

Reading more than the headline can help with that. According to The Journal FactCheck’s editorial lead Stevie McDermott, one of the most common forms of misinformation his team sees is screenshots of fake or doctored headlines. 

“Nefarious actors mock up what look like real headlines from reputable outlets like RTÉ or The Journal and share them to whip up support for their cause or just to sow division generally.”

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‍A grain of truth 

Some posts or articles are entirely false, but others that are incorrect overall may contain a grain of truth, making them seem more plausible.

Galvin said these types of posts can be particularly dangerous as they’re generally harder to recognise.

“If you want to have a healthy dinner and your plate contains five peas and then six Big Macs, the five peas don’t make it a healthy dinner. You know what I mean? There is an element of health in it, but most of it is just trash.

“So you should think about information in the same way – a grain of truth can often be more damaging than no truth at all in some ways because it coaxes us to think in a certain way or to react in a certain way.

“We wouldn’t pollute our bodies with bad food just because there’s a grain of goodness in it, we shouldn’t pollute our minds with bad information just because there’s a grain of truth in it,” he said.

In recent years, fact-checkers have seen an increase in real footage from a conflict being mislabeled and shared as happening in a different place at a different time. For example, footage from Syria has been posted online with the poster claiming it was recently taken in Gaza.