Previous Subchapter → 8.6 Our tips in practice
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The Internet has massively increased the spread of misinformation, but it also gives people the tools to independently fact check, to research for themselves and to correct the record
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This independence is being threatened by governments around the world, who have attempted to regulate what we see online through censorship laws
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Russia has passed laws threatening extensive fines and jail terms for outlets that criticise Russian government bodies, branding this criticism as “fakes”, the EU and UK have blocked Russian state media outlets (such as RT and Sputnik) for promoting misinformation
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We should fight misinformation through education on media literacy rather than banning “undesirable” outlets, as governments are not fit to decide what media is valid information and what is misinformation due to an obvious conflict of interest, all governments are fighting the information war
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Ideal things to consider for Media Literacy: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, consider the motive of an outlet and what their bias might be, follow the chain of sources, seek out wider reading