In Canada, the Décrypteurs team fights disinformation. Among their various projects at Radio Canada, they have set up a tool : Les ateliers pour combattre la désinformation (workshops to combat disinformation) – Radio Canada
The Décrypteurs, made up of 4 Radio Canada journalists, decode and “debunk” the fake news circulating on the internet, especially those that go viral. This team is thus a fact-checking outlet, reaching people who seek information after seeing a piece of news on the internet or on social networks. However, they noted that this outlet did not reach everyone who has been confronted with disinformation, misinformation or pseudoscience. They therefore worked on creating the “combattre la désinformation” site to equip everyone with the knowledge needed to sort the true from the false.
On this site there are several workshops that prevent, and teach people to understand and recognise, fake news. The site is educational, offers explanations that can be understood by as many people as possible, and puts the advice into practice with short, well-supported quizzes. You simply scroll and read the explanations to learn the tricks of online scammers, fake news sites and AI-generated images.
Whether you are a teenager, in your forties or in your eighties, the site is educational, fairly easy to access and informs about the different forms of disinformation.
There are 11 workshops, the last of which is a check of the newly acquired knowledge. Out of curiosity, I started with the final quiz. Confident in my knowledge, I still lost a few points, and read the answers provided with interest. The site covers deepfakes (AI-generated images), fake press articles, pseudoscientific publications and conspiracy theories alike. Using simple examples and explanations, this site allows everyone to become an internet investigator, able to navigate between the information, videos and photos that swarm across the various sites.
Let us spend a few minutes going through the tools that seem to me indispensable, in the manner of a “survival guide” in internet territory.
In the first workshop, the aim is to understand how to find reliable sources on the internet and on social networks. The Décrypteurs also take the time to explain the business model of verification badges on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, as well as offering examples of scams and fake news sites.
In the second workshop, we will learn to tell the difference between disinformation (false and made up from scratch), malinformation (distortion of an image or of words), and misinformation (false information that is believed by whoever spreads it).
In the third workshop, photos are the target. We will learn about reverse image searches, and use tools such as Forensically to determine the authenticity of images.
In the fourth workshop, it is the turn of videos ! Between editing, deepfakes and alteration, it is hard today to tell real videos from fake ones. The Décrypteurs offer us a little exercise in telling the techniques of trickery apart. Not so simple !
In the fifth workshop, the Radio Canada team takes us into the world of AI and of the deepfake (or hyper-faking). You will have to concentrate on the details of faces and settings to find out whether the videos presented are fake.
In the sixth workshop, conspiracy theories come under the Décrypteurs’ magnifying glass. Several exercises let us see the conspiracy theories most widely shared on networks.
In the seventh workshop, we will talk about “zombie news”, that is, news stories that resurface several years later, often modified. The Décrypteurs talk here about information laundering, where sources are smoothed over so as to be considered more reliable.
In the eighth workshop, we will decode fake social media contests, as well as the consequences of taking part in them (financial scams, harvesting of personal data).
In the ninth workshop, the aim is to tell scientific publications from pseudoscientific and erroneous ones. Here, let us remember that pseudoscientific information about medical and health practices has had major impacts, and the Décrypteurs enable us to be extremely vigilant on this point. Let us recall, for example, the scandals around Covid-19 with the pseudo-doctors who recommended drinking bleach to cure oneself.
In the tenth workshop, and perhaps the most important, the Décrypteurs bring a very interesting reflection on disinformation : personal biases. Indeed, each of us will tend to believe more readily information that matches our value system, and will be more inclined to be critical of information that does not suit us. We would then need to know our own biases in order to be less constrained by them.
To conclude, it seems to me that this site offers fundamental learning, a very precise guide to navigating the internet. In an era when many people get their information via the internet and social networks, it seems to me that this guide provides a real tool for prevention and education. To be used without moderation!
URL : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/decrypteurs/ateliers-combattre-desinformation/
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