Conscious use of media – especially in the age of artificial intelligence – protects against misinformation and hate. On the occasion of the World Media and Information Literacy Week announced by UNESCO, we remind you how to be responsible when sharing content, especially on social networks.
Most Poles point to a number of threats emanating from the Internet, including hate speech, hate speech and disinformation. About a third of them admit that they are afraid of false information and fake news when using the Internet. These are the conclusions of the August study on cyber security in Poland, the report of which was published on October 3 by the Digital Poland Foundation. A previous survey in February this year showed that 82 percent. Poles, the rate of disinformation has increased in the last ten years; 84 percent of the respondents admitted that they encountered fake news.
READ ON KONKRET24: Poles against disinformation
As we observe at Konkret24, this phenomenon is getting worse. Every year, fake news and widely perceived misinformation become more difficult to remove from the messages being circulated. For example, 14 years after the disaster in Smolensk, 29 percent of Poles polled in February still believe it was an attack. And this is despite the fact that the professional media have already revealed, none of the groups of specialists and experts investigating the causes of the disaster have confirmed the theory of the attack.
From October 24 to 31, the World Media and Information Literacy Week is an annual event organized by UNESCO. The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of a responsible approach to content in the media, especially social media. In this regard, we would like to remind you what to do to avoid falling prey to false information and contributing to the spread of cyber hate.
Rule of thumb: don't be critical of anything that comes to us through social media, social networking sites, or instant messaging.
Reliable information on the Internet: how to recognize it
Before commenting or sharing information you come across online, including on social media, check if it is reliable and accurate. How to go about it? Start by identifying the source.
See which site published this content: Have you heard of it before? What other content does he post? If the website does not contain information about its authors, if the texts are not signed with a name and surname, if there is no editorial footer – such a website is not very reliable.
Read the text carefully. Check if there are experts in a given specialty, for example, scientists with achievements and publications on the topic in which they speak. If the comments are confidential, the text lacks facts and specifications, references to sources, and the text is dominated by evaluative content – do not trust them. In order to weaken the alertness of the recipients, such sites often mix real information with manipulation or fake news.
Distinguish opinion from fact. Opinion is subjective and contains a vocabulary of evaluations and assessments. Information about evidence is objective, specific, its description is neutral and non-specific. If facts and opinions are mixed in the text, or opinions are presented to the reader as evidence – do not believe such news.
Also note the release date. False stories have a stronger effect when they relate to current events – what the receiver is living now. Therefore, it is necessary to check when the material was published. Because it often happens that, for example, when a new armed conflict breaks out, old articles, recordings and current photos are published.
Be wary of posts posted on anonymous social media accounts, even if they go viral. Be especially careful if there is no source in such a message, or if the source provided is unreliable.
Be aware that not everything you read and see on the internet, especially on social media, is true. Therefore, use information from reliable sources. They include professional media editorial offices, including: news portals (eg Tvn24.pl, Onet, Wirtualna Polska), news agencies (Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse), newspapers and opinion magazines, professional news broadcasters and television stations, and such media websites. If a given piece of information has not been published by a major opinion-forming media outlet, treat it with caution.
Control your emotions on social media
Many of us comment or share content on social media under the influence of emotions, without knowing that it is true.
The creators of many false messages create narratives about negative emotions, including fear. They want their recipients to feel threatened and thus become more sensitive to what they read or see online. Fear also makes us automatically warn others, so we share more disturbing material. All this contributes to the spread of, for example, disinformation in war.
Therefore, before responding to a message or other content on social media, answer the following questions: How does it make me feel? Is what I am sharing or commenting on true information? It's not your intention to mislead others, is it? Your reaction to a potentially false post can increase its visibility to others – social media algorithms work in favor of content that elicits reactions from users.
If you are unsure whether the information or input provided is correct, do not comment, share or respond. If you suspect that this information is false, report it to the inspectors. At the end of the text, we will explain how you can do this.
Photo, video and audio in the age of AI. How to distinguish the real from the manufactured
Artificial intelligence is already present in everyday life. Many of us now unlock our phones with Face ID, rely on virtual assistants, and use AI-powered chats. Increasingly popular and advanced tools based on artificial intelligence are affecting the way people use information, especially available on the Internet.
You may have used information provided by an AI chat that is the result of an AI hallucination. Or maybe you were fooled by an AI-generated image because it looked like a real photo. AI generates widely available text, images, music, sounds and videos. It offers many opportunities, but also threats. AI is already being used to create false content, promote untrustworthy sources, and contribute to the rise of discriminatory prejudices.
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So how can you distinguish an AI-generated creation from an original photo, video or recording? Here are some helpful tips and tools.
Photo inspection. Pay attention to details. Do you notice that the background elements are melting, the characters have unnatural skin, their bodies are out of proportion? These are common errors for graphs generated by AI-based tools. Pay attention to glasses, faces, eyes, hands, fingers, ears – mistakes are likely to occur during AI generation.
Publicly available online tools like Illuminarty, DeepFake-O-Meter, AI or NO, and Hive Moderation can help you determine if a given photo was generated using AI tools. Although the results provided by these tools are only a guide. It's hard to judge from them whether or not something is created or controlled using AI – but they're useful.
Check out the video. Watch the recording several times. Pay attention to details. Look for things that behave in ways that defy the laws of physics, such as strands of hair that melt in mid-air or ocean waves that break in a different direction instead of hitting the shore. Pay attention to the body movements and facial expressions of the people in the recording. Abnormal manner of movement – for example, minimal body movement; the body does not move when the head moves – these are common AI errors. Another fact in the videos is the shiny and artificial look of people's skin. Tools that can help you rate videos include: TrueMedia.org, DeepFake-O-Mete, Deepware, Deepfake Total.
Audio check. Listen carefully and analyze. Unnatural pauses and intonation, repetition of words – all this is suspicious. Check official sources – whether a given politician has also published the same voice recording there. AI or NOT, Hive Moderation and Deepfake Total will be useful for checking audio recordings.
Iran, China and Russia are trying to influence the American elections. Flood of false information on the Internet Marcin Wrona/Fakty TVN
You are not alone with misinformation. Facts help
Every day there is disinformation and fake news, including: those related to the war in Ukraine, the refugee crisis, climate change, election campaigns, controlled by fact-makers and special groups of journalists around the world, including in Poland. Confirmed posts and exposed manipulations can be found on the Konkret24 website.
The results of fact-checkers are available on the Internet. They can be found, among others, in the Google Fact Check Explorer – a database that indexes only fact-checking articles from newsrooms around the world. However, it is limited to fact-checking by editors working with Google. A similar international database is the Database of Known Fakes (DBKF), created by WeVerify and developed thanks to EU funds. In these sources, you can not only check whether a politician or a public figure has been wrong before and on what topic, but also you can analyze whether a given thesis or topic has already been approved by the facts.
Confirmed messages and manipulations circulating in Polish media, instant messaging and social networking sites can be found, among others, on the Konkret24 website.
If you are not confident in your ability to verify data, rely on professionals. You can report suspicious content – information, photos, videos – on the Konkret24 website. Just click the “Report for Review” button. You can also report through our social networks – we are on Facebook, Instagram and X – or by email to [email protected].
Main image source: Shutterstock