{"id":42645,"date":"2023-11-10T01:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T09:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=42645"},"modified":"2023-11-09T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T23:08:19","slug":"efforts-to-reduce-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/11\/10\/efforts-to-reduce-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Efforts to reduce fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"

People can report misinformation and hateful material at FakeReporter.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a world where misinformation and disinformation are coming at us in unprecedented volumes, an Israeli organization is working literally around-the-clock to flag, correct and eliminate online falsehoods \u2013 and they depend on ordinary people to inform them of lies that need addressing.<\/p>\n

Achiya Schatz, co-founder and chief executive officer of the group FakeReporter, spoke virtually at a Nov. 2 event organized by Canadian Friends of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Congregation Beth Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to leverage crowd wisdom in order to make the internet a safer place,\u201d said Schatz.<\/p>\n

The challenge goes far beyond reducing misleading information online, he said. The very survival of democratic societies is at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not have the capacity to distinguish what\u2019s true from what\u2019s false,\u201d he said, \u201cthen, by definition, the marketplace of ideas doesn\u2019t work and, by definition, our democracy doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

FakeReporter\u2019s work is painstaking. An on-call team of thousands of volunteers are connected by WhatsApp and other communication tools. When a report of unverified information comes in, it is channeled to an appropriate individual or team to investigate. They will contact government officials, military spokespeople or others who might be able to confirm or debunk the information. They post their findings on social media, disseminate it to conventional media outlets, especially those that may have spread the falsehoods, and report it to the social media or other platforms where it appears.<\/p>\n

While the \u201cfog of war\u201d around the conflict between Israel and Gaza is an obvious source of fake news that keeps FakeReporter teams hopping, equally insidious efforts are fomenting internal strife in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cArab citizens of Israel have been heavily attacked,\u201d Schatz said of anti-Arab propaganda targeting citizens of Israel online. Posts have aimed to make Jewish Israelis believe that Arab Israelis are a threat. Photos of Arabs allegedly stalking Jewish homes and businesses turned out to be, after investigations by FakeReporter, tradespeople scoping a roofing project and municipal workers going about their business, for example. The messages, from unidentified sources, have the potential to create civil unrest inside the country amid ongoing conflicts with external terrorist groups on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

On the global level, FakeReporter is responding to a barrage of war-related and more routine anti-Israel material online. In response, taking the nomenclature and vision of Israel\u2019s Iron Dome air defence system, Schatz said, his group is creating what strives to be an invincible defence against online incitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created a Digital Dome,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an operation that, in one place, anyone can report hate speech, [content] glorifying terror, Hamas supporters and, generally, violence online on Meta, Google, LinkedIn and TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

The form for people to fill out is at DigitalDome.io, and the organization\u2019s website is FakeReporter.net.<\/p>\n

While there is an unlimited number of comparatively minor falsehoods, Schatz said his group is dedicated to confronting some specific and convoluted conspiracy theories that are going viral. Like the fantastical theories that emerged after the 9\/11 terror attacks in the United States, the Oct. 7 attacks have spawned what Schatz calls the \u201ctraitors among us\u201d conspiracies, in which Israeli security agencies are alleged to have masterminded, or at least participated in, the attacks, as a cover to attack Gaza.<\/p>\n

While his organization is busy assessing and confronting the mass of misinformation and disinformation, individuals can do their part by consuming information critically, Schatz said.<\/p>\n

To spot fake news, he said, several questions can narrow the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I trust the person who wrote and distributed the news?\u201d he said. \u201cIs what I\u2019m reading an opinion or a fact? Does what I\u2019m reading make me feel rage? This question will help you understand that you are seeing something that maybe you should question.\u201d If the \u201cnews\u201d you saw in one place is not reported anywhere else, be very suspicious, he said.<\/p>\n

The spread of false information is exacerbated by unwitting individuals who share what they find online.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you spread anything forward, you should just breathe for a moment, look at it again with critical thinking and that would do half the job,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t just spread news through WhatsApp groups and Telegram groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you find something that glorifies or promotes violence, that is racist, antisemitic or likely untrue, don\u2019t send it to friends, send it DigitalDome.io, he said.<\/p>\n

There are other things to consider in determining whether an item might be fake news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times, information is real but it\u2019s not in the context,\u201d said Schatz. A photo of a bombed building may be real, as opposed to Photoshopped. But what is purported to be in Gaza is often discovered to be from wars in Syria, Ukraine or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The FakeReporter team uses multiple strategies to assess the veracity of photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can recognize the vehicle,\u201d he said, \u201cwe can geo-locate the area, understanding where it is in the world, and we can look for the information online and see, [was it] maybe published before?\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is global and Schatz said governments and social media platforms must work together \u2013 or, as in the case of European legislation, governments can impose severe financial penalties on companies that do not speedily react to reports of false or dangerous information on their sites.<\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s Digital Services Act makes it the responsibility of large online information companies to police and remove hate speech, disinformation and cyberbullying, as well as unsafe or illegal retail products, such as sham or life-threatening pharmaceuticals. Other countries could replicate Europe\u2019s legislation, said Schatz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is beautiful about the EU is that they have had a few countries come together and they used their power against big tech [in ways] small countries cannot,\u201d he said. \u201cIsrael cannot do anything about it.\u2026 Even if we do pass a law, why would Facebook or Twitter care about the law that we passed? They don\u2019t care. That\u2019s a huge problem. What I think Canada and other countries should do is adopt what is happening in the Digital Services Act in Europe and then it\u2019s much easier for the tech companies and for the country, because it\u2019s just replicating what they already can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the examples Schatz used to this point were addressing the source of misinformation and disinformation. Societies also must sensitize the targets of this content by giving individuals the tools to assess what they see and hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinland, for example, understood the disinformation coming from Russia is a national threat to them,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, they created programs, first for kids and then grown-ups, in digital literacy and information literacy and they are teaching \u2026 how to consume information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dina Wachtel, Western region executive director of Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, opened the online event. Rabbi Jonathan Infeld of Congregation Beth Israel introduced Schatz and offered reflections on the topic.<\/p>\n

Schatz warned that disinformation is at an inflection point, likely headed for an exponential increase thanks to artificial intelligence, while global responses to the problem are embryonic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still learning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re still adapting. Digital and information literacy is something that is still in its baby steps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People can report misinformation and hateful material at FakeReporter.net. In a world where misinformation and disinformation are coming at us in unprecedented volumes, an Israeli organization is working literally around-the-clock to flag, correct and eliminate online falsehoods \u2013 and they depend on ordinary people to inform them of lies that need addressing. Achiya Schatz, co-founder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[22737,547,1726,63,20349,67,3076,6575,22738,6116],"class_list":["post-42645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-achiya-schatz","tag-beth-israel","tag-canadian-friends-of-hebrew-university","tag-cfhu","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-dina-wachtel","tag-education","tag-fake-news","tag-fakereporter-net","tag-media-literacy"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}