False wildfire and election information is thriving online. Here's how you can tackle it

With unprecedented wildfires and a provincial election happening at the same time, Alberta is ripe for the spreading of false information online.

But there are ways to avoid falling into the traps of misinformation and disinformation.

Wildfire evacuees have said in interviews that false information has filled gaps where updates from officials have fallen short. Elections Alberta recently had to clarify its own messaging about voting rules.

"Elections and natural disasters are unfortunately two of the types of events that tend to unleash the most amount of false and misleading content and claims," said Craig Silverman, a reporter who investigates disinformation and digital manipulation for ProPublica, a U.S.-based non-profit investigative journalism newsroom.

But it's not just bad actors who spread incorrect information. 

"It can be people genuinely trying to pass things along, thinking it's true, thinking it's helpful," Silverman said in an interview with CBC News.

Different types of false information

There's a difference between misinformation and disinformation.

Misinformation can include honest mistakes, misunderstandings, exaggerations, fallacies and conspiracy theories. People may post or share something thinking it's true, or without taking the steps to check how accurate it is. 

Disinformation involves the spreading of false information with the intent to mislead.

Misinformation and disinformation can take on many forms, according to Matthew Johnson, director of education for MediaSmarts, a non-profit which educates Canadians about digital and media literacy.

"Almost any kind of information that we encounter online can be disinformation," Johnson said, "whether it is a genuine false news article, whether it's a photo or video, a meme, a social network post, even a recipe."

What to look out for

Johnson said one of the biggest and most serious forms of disinformation he's seen around election time tends to centre on the voting process itself.

People can spread false information about different aspects such as when polls close, how votes are collected, and documents voters need or don't need to bring to their voting places.

"Anything about the mechanics of voting, it's really important to check with the election authority because that's your best source," Johnson told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.

"These things can have a direct impact on whether or not you get a chance to vote."

Silverman said other false information that spreads around elections tends to be about the parties and candidates themselves, in an effort to sway voters to cast their ballots one way or another.

"Sometimes you'll read claims that seem to be rooted in fact and have a lot of statistics but are actually misstating what a politician or a particular party said," he said.

But in the case of a natural disaster like the current wildfires, Silverman and Johnson say false information can easily spread through images and videos that may be real, but are being shared out of context.

This month, some photos shared on Facebook claiming to show specific communities affected during Alberta's current wildfire season were actually from the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray.

"That's a scenario where you have kind of a mix of real and genuine content but the context is false or misleading and that is one of the most common types of deceptive content that we see online," Silverman said.

So how can you know what's real?

Silverman and Johnson say more people should become familiar with Google's reverse image search, which can show where the image – and similar photos – appear online.

Another useful tool is TinEye, which can tell when a photo first appeared online. It can determine if an image posted online was taken that day or years ago.

Although there are many other available digital tools used to debunk false information, Silverman said whether or not people fall for false facts depends mostly on their state of mind.

"You have to have the mindset of not looking to confirm what you already suspect or what you already believe, and not looking to be comforted by someone explaining things exactly how you see them," he said.

Johnson described this as the need to have "intellectual humility" – being conscious of one's own bias and ability to be wrong.

He said that when people stumble across news that seems important or sparks an emotional reaction, the next best step is to search for what others are saying about it –  if it's talked about elsewhere at all.

"What other news outlets would be covering this story? And if it's not there then you have reason to be suspicious," Johnson said.

He said it's important for people to pay attention to whether the story is being covered with significantly different details to what they originally saw.

Johnson and Silverman recommend using Google's news tab, which limits searches to actual news outlets.

"If you're worried that maybe one of them … might be biased in some way, you can compare it against the others," said Johnson.

'The most important tool is your mind'

Silverman recommends that people get their news from a wide variety of credible sources, rather than just following one or two media outlets.

It's also best to check where a piece of content or fact first originated, as most false information tends to contain some grain of truth, and is often based on a real fact or event that was misinterpreted or purposefully manipulated. 

With rapid advances in the development of artificial intelligence, which can be used to generate fake photos and videos, the same advice applies.

"If an event really happened … there should be other photos, other footage from that and other corroborating evidence," Silverman said. 

"Remind yourself to be a little bit patient, to not just believe everything you see," he said.

"The most important tool is your mind."