4 Steps to Help You Avoid Spreading Election Misinformation

Although Election Day is set for November 5, early voting began in September. some states. While we wait for the final results to be announced, there is a possibility that you may encounter false or misleading information.

To avoid the spread of misinformation this election season, there are four things to consider.

On the night of November 5th we will not know the full picture.

Election rules and procedures vary from state to state. Within a state, they may even vary by county. Some states allow pre-processing of mail-in ballots received before Election Day. The rest leave the processing and counting of mail-in ballots. before the polls close on election day.

This means the results could change significantly during election night, depending on which ballots are counted first. This happened in 2020 as states that then-President Donald Trump appeared to be leading flipped to Joe Biden late in the evening.

If you are overreacting to new information, pause.

It is normal to have an emotional reaction to information you encounter online or in the news. But if the information you’ve just received makes you particularly emotional, it could be a sign to hit the brakes, says Rachel Moran of University of Washington Center for an Informed Public. “A lot of misleading information is intentionally created to sow confusion or provoke an emotional reaction. So if that’s happening to you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that what you read is wrong, but it’s a good signal to kind of slow down,” she said.

We have a desire for our beliefs to be reflected in us, so it’s easy to agree with something if it reinforces our worldview—even if it’s not true, said Hannah Covington, senior director of educational content at News Literacy Project. “When you see information that you just automatically agree with, that’s really a signal to pause and maybe do a quick search.”

Consider how reliable your source of information is.

Open your preferred search engine and run quick search by keywords to see what other credible sources have to say about the information you are evaluating. “If you don’t see something being reported across multiple news outlets, then it’s probably time to just wait (before sharing),” Covington said.

When considering whether a news source is trustworthy, pay attention to how it handles errors in your reporting. Trusting a source that makes mistakes may seem counterintuitive, “but actually correcting information when there is an inaccuracy is a huge sign of trust,” Covington told NPR.

Be careful with information translated from another language. A good translator needs knowledge of the language and culture so that they can understand whether the original message is satirical or ironic, says Laura Sommer, co-founder and CEO of the company Facts.

If you receive a message on WhatsApp marked “Forwarded” or “forwarded many times“Be especially careful as this indicates that the author of the content is unclear, not the person who sent (you) the message,” Sommer told NPR via email.

Be careful about what photos and videos are supposed to “prove.”

Be careful when evaluating images, videos, and audio. They are easy to manipulate or take out of context. Take this tweet 2020 an allegation of voter suppression, as allegedly evidenced by a photo of a pile of mailboxes. It says: “Photo taken in Wisconsin. This is happening right before our eyes. They are sabotaging the USPS to sabotage mail-in voting. This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election.”

UCLA law professor Richard L. Hasen explored this claim in his 2022 book: Cheap speech: how disinformation is poisoning our politics—and how to cure it. As it turns out, while the photo is real, there were no allegations of voter suppression. The mailboxes were photographed outside a business that had a contract to refurbish old mailboxes for the U.S. Postal Service rather than recycle them.

These days, Moran said, “The old adage… ‘seeing is believing’ is no longer true.” When you encounter any media on the Internet, it is worth asking: “Is this what I hearing or seeing AI generated? Or it could be real and fraudulently edited?

Ultimately, “we must protect ourselves and our communities (from misinformation) by sharing only verified information,” Covington said.

NPR’s Brett Neely contributed to this story.

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