The Librarian Is In: Chronic Dis/Mis-information on Social Media
Part 2 of "Leaving Social Media?" series
You may think you’re digitally literate, because you can navigate your way around the internet and “Google” things, but are you really? Do you understand privacy online? Do you know about mis/disinformation?
The National Forum for the Prevention of Cyber Sexual Abuse, of which I was a collaborator, says of digital literacy:
While information literacy focuses on finding and understanding educational resources, digital literacy focuses on the tools and techniques used to find and understand such resources online.
Digital literacy goes beyond, for instance, knowing how to search a library database. To be ‘digitally literate’ means that a person has the skill set to navigate the complexities of online life. This necessitates not only a fluency in how to use technologies, but also a fluency in how technologies impact intellectual freedom and personal agency.
The terms “disinformation” and “misinformation” are frequently used interchangeably online. Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, writes: “Misinformation is simply information that is incomplete, but it can also be defined as information that is uncertain, vague, or ambiguous” (Cooke, 6). Misinformation is often misleading. According to Wikipedia, disinformation is “false information that is spread deliberately to deceive” (wikipedia.org). Disinformation is always incorrect, unlike misinformation. Both are troubling and problematic, especially in today’s world. We have seen this play out in various instances, though most recent (and most egregious) throughout the Covid-19 global pandemic. In an interview, Tara Kirk Sell, PhD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says there are four types of false information that come about during major health crises. These include: 1) “mischaracterization of the disease or protective measures that are needed; 2) false treatments or medical interventions; 3) scapegoating of groups of people; and 4) conspiracy theories…” (publichealth.jhu.edu).
Back in February of 2020, when the pandemic was just starting here in the United States, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams tweeted:
Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!
This tweet has since been deleted. In April of 2020, federal government health officials changed this guidance. Later, in July of 2020, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study showing how mask-wearing may have prevented two Covid-positive employees at a hair salon from spreading the infection to their 139 clients. Had The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the recommendation to wear masks from the beginning, perhaps we wouldn’t continue to see such vitriol and confusion amongst citizens. The misinformation around masks from our own government is terrifying.
In running a large social media account, there is a lot of pressure to post any and everything—and be the first to do so. It’s almost as if you are the newspaper fighting for first story. I see this with other social justice accounts as well. This then leads to posting mis- or dis-information. People are too quick to post false or skewed information, which then gets shared hundreds or thousands of times. There have been many times, especially early on with The Guerrilla Feminist, that I shared stories without fully vetting them. My now librarian self cringes at this. However, according to a recent research study, social media platforms are more to blame for the spread of misinformation than individual people. This particular study found that misinformation is a “function of the structure of the social media sites themselves.”
Gizem Ceylan who led the study says:
The habits of social media users are a bigger driver of misinformation spread than individual attributes. We know from prior research that some people don’t process information critically, and others form opinions based on political biases, which also affects their ability to recognize false stories online… However, we show that the reward structure of social media platforms plays a bigger role when it comes to misinformation spread.
Part of how this happens, on an individual level, is pressure from followers to post any and everything about an issue. I knew that I couldn’t post about every injustice, but if I didn’t post about everything, I would get inundated with messages from people. My DMs would be full of questions like: “Why haven’t you posted about X yet? You clearly don’t care.” I didn’t set out to be a feminist news space, but that’s what I became—and I didn’t like it. I have mostly stopped posting anything other than funny Tweets and my own writing on “the grid” of Instagram these days. Part of this is for my own sanity, but part of it is also because I’m tired of putting so much labor into educational posts (researching, vetting, writing) only for them to not be seen. The algorithm, which I’ll be devoting an entire piece to in this series, is fully responsible for this.
As a librarian, I want to educate people about mis/dis-information, but I also don’t have the time to do unpaid labor. Librarianship is already demeaned by many people, and I don’t want to add to this by creating toolkits, educational posts, or anything else if it’s not given the attention it’s deserved. But if we don’t have people, like librarians or other educators, creating resources, how will we ever combat fake news? With the rise of AI and deep fakes, mis- and dis-information are only going to become more common and more insidious.
I honestly don’t think there is a way to continue with social justice work on social media platforms mostly because of the rampant mis- and dis-information. Especially since Meta, Twitter, TikTok, etc, are not doing anything to prevent it. I realize that this will continue to negatively impact disabled folks, specifically homebound folks who rely on social media spaces to engage with activism. On-the-ground activism is still unfortunately inaccessible for many people. I’ve read far too much about organizing efforts not enforcing mask-wearing during a global pandemic, and thus, making their events and protests harmful to disabled and immunocompromised folks. We simply have to do a better job of making outdoor activism accessible as well as creating more authentic and purposeful spaces for online activism—away from social media platforms.
I don’t think we can utilize public social media spaces to educate and inform. Perhaps we’ll start seeing a resurgence of private message boards or private social media accounts that vet folks who join. Either way, things will need to shift and change. It’s my belief that continuing to rely on social media platforms for our collective organizing and education is going to lead to scary, untenable situations.
In next week’s issue, I’ll talk about The Algorithm and algorithmic bias harming social justice movements.
🎉 Things of the Week
I deleted Twitter for mental health reasons and I already feel better!
Lindy West on that problematic movie
Watching Shrinking and loving it
Reading “a biracial, queer, nonbinary retelling of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein”
I was interviewed on an LA-based radio show, Body Politics, in which I talked all about digital violence. You can listen to it if you go here and then “Choose a category” and then “Health & Spirituality” and it’s the “Health & Wellness Mix” episode from March 16.
✨Reminders✨
The Guerrilla Feminist is reader-supported! Thank you to the folks who pay monthly to support my work. If you want to be added to a paid plan, go here.
Want consulting on Digital Violence Prevention Programming? Go here.
Wanna add to The Guerrilla Feminist Spotify Playlist? Go here.
Forward this email to a friend you think would enjoy it or take a screenshot and share it on social media!
Good read .......😎 I liked the radio spot....other mediums to get your message out and educate....But time is money.......