Category: Misinformation 101

We felt nostalgic this week and wanted to bring back Clippy, but with a twist!

We wondered: “What would Clippy say if it was programmed to nudge and assist people with misinformation?”

Science is under attack and it’s causing real harm to people, communities, and public trust. 

Health misinformation spreads for many reasons: profit, politics, or simply to create confusion and erode trust in science. Regardless of intent, these lies are everywhere, shaping public opinion, influencing health decisions, and even driving policies. The results? People get hurt, and lives are put at risk.

Together, we can make the Canadian information environment more resilient and protect the health of Canadians. We all have a role to play in standing up for science. Together, let’s speak up and say unwaveringly that #ScienceMatters.

Share with us how false health information is impacting you, Canada and the world.

We already covered 4 misinformer tactics wellness influencers use: appeal to nature, false dichotomy, causal fallacy, and cherry-picking.

Here are 4 more to watch out for.

Have you come across these tactics in your feed? Let us know!

Just because a story is repeated does not make it true.

Firehose of falsehood, or firehosing, is a propaganda technique that aims to confuse and overwhelm the audience with continuous, rapid, and repetitive messaging over multiple platforms. The messaging is often false, or composed of half-truths and lacks consistency and objectivity (1).

This tactic is used by Russian president Vladimir Putin (1), U.S. president Donald Trump (2), but also by anti-vaccine groups to spread misinformation about vaccines (3).

It works because it uses a number of varied sources to spread its lies (4,5), as well as tapping into our needs for conformity (6). When you see something being shared by multiple sources, you are more likely to think it is true (1). With firehosing, the lies don’t even have to be believable because the goal is not to persuade, but to bombard people with so much information they become too overwhelmed to fact-check everything (3).

The best way to counter-attack firehosing is to be aware of the tactic (3), keep reporting false content to disrupt the disinformation’s flow (3), and share evidence-based information instead of getting into comment wars refuting misinformation (1).

Many thanks to Jordan Collver for collaborating with us on this project! Check out his work on his website (jordancollver.myportfolio.com) and on Twitter (@JordanCollver)

Do you know the difference between vertical and lateral reading? Fact-checkers use lateral reading because it is faster, more efficient, and less biased than vertical reading.

The SIFT method involves stopping, investigating the source, finding better coverage and tracing the information. We’ll summarize each point for you so you know how to SIFT.

Tip #1: After the website URL, you can add the name of the site you want to search on (e.g., Wikipedia) to find relevant pages more easily. 

Tip #2: In Google Chrome, right-click an image and select “Search with Google Lens” for a quick reverse image search (24). 

Remember, if you have doubts about the reliability of a source, if no other reputable media outlet is reporting the information or if you feel like something is wrong, it is best not to share it.

Would you like to know more about the SIFT method? Take a look at the CTRL-F website. You will find resources, educational materials, examples and activities to perfect your lateral reading technique. 

Wellness influencers often use misinformer tactics to make their claims more convincing. We’re breaking down 4 of the most common ones and how they work.

Which one do you see the most on social media? Let us know!