Misinformation and Disinformation: A Guide for Protecting Yourself

When we can’t agree on what’s true, we can’t agree on anything. That’s why misinformation and disinformation (MDI) is so dangerous for our democracy – and why we all have a duty to combat it.

In this guide, you’ll learn all about MDI: what it is, how to recognize it, and what to say to loved ones to keep them from falling for it.

Table of Contents

1. What Are Misinformation and Disinformation (MDI)?
2. Video Breakdown
3. How To Protect Yourself From Misinformation and Disinformation
4. How To Talk About Misinformation and Disinformation With Your Children and Loved Ones
5. Misinformation and Disinformation Facts and Figures
6. Misinformation and Disinformation Resources
7. How to Report MDI on Social Media

What Are Misinformation and Disinformation?

First, let’s define our terms, misinformation and disinformation, often combined into MDI.

Misinformation Definition

Misinformation is false information that spreads without deliberate harmful intent. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a game of telephone gone wrong. Your Great Uncle Ted doesn’t mean any harm when he shares that post about how the aliens built the pyramids, but that doesn’t make it true.

Disinformation Definition

Disinformation is deliberately fabricated false information designed to deceive or manipulate. It’s weaponized lies with an agenda. A real-world example played out on X (formerly Twitter) during the 2016 election. 3,841 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (popularly known as a Russian troll farm) posted divisive, often inaccurate

How They’re Different

When it comes to distinguishing misinformation and disinformation, intent matters. Misinformation can come from anyone who doesn’t do enough research before they hit “share.” Disinformation, on the other hand, typically comes from extremists or unethical organizations. One distinction that doesn’t matter? Political party. People across the political spectrum are susceptible to sharing false information when it aligns with their

False information isn’t just a social media problem. It’s a human problem that’s been around forever. What’s changed is the speed and scale. A single misleading post can reach millions in minutes. With the majority of adults receiving at least some of their news from social media platforms, spreading false information has never been

Video Breakdown

In this video, journalist Aliza Vigderman explains what misinformation and disinformation are, how they’re different, and how you can avoid them online and off.

How To Protect Yourself From Misinformation and Disinformation

Here’s a practical toolkit you can use to identify and protect yourself from MDI:

• Verify information: Today, we have access to more information than ever before, and it’s all right at our fingertips. Take advantage of this data surplus by verifying information that you read in news articles with other trustworthy sources. Even the most respected outlets, like The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, can get facts wrong sometimes. This process of checking multiple websites to verify certain information is called “reading laterally”, while staying on the same website is called “reading vertically”.
• Consider the source: The first thing you should do is find out who is the primary source of information, as compared to the secondary source who is reporting on this data. Ask yourself the following questions:
  • Who is this story coming from?
  • What is the background of the source?
  • Who does this story benefit?
  • What is the source material the article is being written about?
  • Are you familiar with this person or organization?

  If the answer to the last question is no, take a few moments to research the source’s credentials. On social media, that can be as easy as checking their profile or bio.

• Be skeptical: With the prevalence of MDI, especially on social media platforms, it’s important not to automatically trust someone just because they say they’re a journalist. Professional journalists follow a code of ethics that shows in their work. They’ll identify themselves clearly, provide multiple sources, and correct errors transparently. If you see an article relying heavily on anonymous sources without corroborating evidence or named experts, that’s a red flag worth investigating further.
• Go beyond the headline: Make sure you read the entire article and not just the headline. Recent research found that 75 percent of links shared on social media aren’t clicked before That means most people spread articles based solely on headlines.
• Use diverse sources: We all have our own political beliefs, but to obtain the most objective information, it’s important to read news sources from the left, right and center.
• Get objective: It’s also important to differentiate between news articles and op-eds. While op-eds are often emotional and subjective, news should be written as objectively as possible. So if you finish a news article feeling extremely angry or scared, that’s probably an indication of a lack of objectivity.
• Don’t trust your gut: While humans like to think of themselves as rational beings, psychologists know that we suffer from many different types of “cognitive biases” that make us vulnerable to MDI.⁵ Essentially, the more effort it takes to process information, the more uncomfortable we feel and thus, the more we distrust the information. In contrast, when we like data and can process it easily, we’re more likely to trust it. However, this “gut feeling” is very different from authentic expertise, so unless you’re an expert on a subject, it’s best not to trust your gut. While there are over 100 cognitive biases that we experience, here are a few examples of common mental blind spots:
  • Confirmation bias: Humans tend to look for information that conforms to their already-held beliefs, as it’s easier to build neural pathways for information that we already know. Confirmation bias only increases when strong emotions are involved, as it makes it harder to break down these pathways with contradictory information.
  • Narrative fallacy: We’re also more likely to fall for narratives rather than hard facts and figures, preferring stories with clear causes and effects over hard evidence. Narrative fallacy is often combined with confirmation bias, as we’re especially likely to believe a story if it conforms to our preconceived notions.
  • Halo effect: Just because someone is attractive, funny, or confident, doesn’t mean they’re telling us the truth. But we’re way more likely to believe them anyway. Watch out for that bias – a slick influencer could be spreading misinformation, while a less-than-polished journalist could be publishing real news.
• Think critically: In order to combat these natural cognitive biases, look for statistics and scientific reports as opposed to anecdotes or stories to confirm information.
• Fact-check: There are a number of fact-checking websites that rely on peer-reviewed research rather than stories. One common example is the website Snopes, but we’ve listed other options in our resources section below. If you’re short on time, you can use these websites as your proxy.
• Look out for deepfakes: A picture used to be worth 1,000 words, but AI has changed the game. Watch for telltale signs of AI-generated content: unnatural skin textures, mismatched lighting between subjects and backgrounds, impossible reflections, or that subtle “too perfect” quality.

How To Talk About Misinformation and Disinformation With Your Children and Loved Ones

Whether you have a young child unaware of the existence of “fake news”, or you have a relative spreading misinformation on Facebook, here are the best practices to protect your family and loved ones from MDI.

Children

Start with age-appropriate basics. You can explain “fake news” as made-up tales to younger kids. For tweens and teens, dive deeper into how false information spreads and why people create it. Then, you can show them examples of reliable news sources and how they can differentiate between the two. Be sure to point out that reliable sources should have bylines with the author’s first and last name included, not a first name only or a nickname.

Next, differentiate between news articles and op-eds and explain why it’s important to get both sides of the story. To demonstrate the need for an array of news sources, you can read your child Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, which tells the classic fable from the wolf’s perspective. For older children, show them the difference between a movie’s trailer and its negative reviews from critics.

There are also a few other lessons to impart to your children regarding MDI:

• Just because a fact is widely reported does not necessarily mean it’s accurate.
• No one is immune to MDI, including you.⁶
• You can fact check information through fact-checking websites, by doing a reverse-image search on Google, or by doing a regular source on Google with a word like “hoax” in your search terms. To make this more palatable for children, act like you’re “playing detective”.
• Consider the source and what they have to gain from the information (although this may be appropriate for older children only). If you’re not sure about a search, again, “read laterally” and compare it with sources from the mainstream media.⁷
• You can recognize phishing websites by looking for signs such as:
  • URL ends in .co
  • Website is low-quality in general with spelling and grammar errors, lack of sources, sensationalist images and words written in all caps.
  • No “about us” section.
• Click bait is meant to make you emotional, which is a good indicator that a source is not trustworthy or objective.

In general, it’s important to promote skepticism and critical thinking while discussing news with your kids. You can do this by teaching them the SIFT method developed by digital literacy expert Mike It tells people to stop, investigate the source, find better coverage, and trace claims to their origin. To put this into practice, have them ask the following questions while reading news:

• Who created this article?
• Who is the article’s target audience?
• Who paid for this article, or who gets paid when you click on it?
• Who could be harmed from or benefit from this article?
• Does this article leave out any important information?
• Is this article credible, and if so, why?

With a dose of healthy skepticism and an emphasis on reading laterally, you can teach your children how to tell fake news from real news.

Loved Ones

We’ve all been there — watching someone we care about share obviously false information on social media. It’s frustrating, but approaching with empathy works better than confrontation. Once you do your own research and verify that the information is, in fact, misinformation, here’s how to talk to your loved one and still maintain a positive relationship:

• Choose when to respond publicly or privately: It’s often best to message a loved one privately about a misinformed post so as not to give the post more visibility.⁹ Most people also tend to be more receptive to a private note than one made in public, as the latter might be perceived as a personal attack on them. However, in some instances, writing a public comment linking to a credible source might also be beneficial, especially if the post has gotten a lot of likes, comments, and attention. This will not only convince your loved one of the misinformation, but also others who could have been potentially swayed.
• Watch your tone: While you might feel upset about the misinformation, try not to convey that emotion in your tone, whether verbal or written. Instead, try to maintain a positive and supportive tone, as an angry or shaming tone can alienate the person further, making them even less receptive to changing their minds. A good way to start off would be something like “I was curious about what you posted, so I did some Googling and found…”
• Be empathetic: Another method for not alienating your loved one is to share a story about a time you shared misinformation, empathizing with their position.
• Agree to disagree: While we can try with our best intentions, it’s not always possible to change someone’s mind. If the conversation isn’t constructive, simply share your fact-checking tools and end the conversation.
• Share resources: From there, you can also post these resources and verified information on your own feed so that they can access it if they want.

We can’t control what our loved ones think or say. We can communicate or concerns, calmly and clearly.

Misinformation and Disinformation Facts and Figures

Just how big of a problem is MDI, anyway? Recent data and peer-reviewed research shows that:

• Research shows that false information spreads faster than true information on social media platforms, with emotionally charged content spreading the
• A user’s preference for news outlets depends more on their community online rather than their physical community.
• Americans are more likely to believe MDI if it’s shown to them

The same survey found that 63 percent of people claim to find it easy to identify made-up news, though only 53 percent said the same about altered videos and images.

32 percent of the survey’s respondents said that they see fake news often. 23 percent admitted to having shared fake news.

• MDI is shared more quickly than true information. Looking at rumors from 2006 to 2017 on X (formerly Twitter), the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that the top one percent of fake news reached between 1,000 and 100,000 people, while legitimate news rarely reached over 1,000 people.
• That makes MDI 70 percent more likely to be retweeted on X compared to true information, reaching its first 1,500 people six times faster. With political news, this trend is even more pronounced.
• People who share MDI aren’t necessarily partisan. They’re often just distracted or moving too fast. A 2024 study from MIT found that simply prompting users to think about accuracy before sharing reduced misinformation

Misinformation and Disinformation Resources

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the most trustworthy fact-checkers, resources on MDI and instructions on how to report fake news on social media.

Fact-Checking Resources

Some of the best websites for fact-checking include:

• Snopes: Snopes is the original fact-checking and myth-busting website, supported by an organization that’s free of political affiliations.
• FAIR: FAIR is a national media watchdog group that looks for censorship and bias in the media, promoting diverse viewpoints.
• FactCheck.org: Last but not least, FactCheck.org is a non-profit and non-partisan website run from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.

MDI Prevention Resources

Whether you want a media literacy education via YouTube video or video game, the following resources have got you covered.

• Detect Fakes: Hosted by Northwestern university, this website lets you try your hand at detecting deepfakes. It’s good practice for spotting them in the wild online.
• Bad News: This browser-based game shows you how someone goes from regular poster to fake-news-spreader.
• CrashCourse Media Literacy Videos: This six video playlist is a useful crash course on media literacy.

How To Report MDI On Social Media

Most major social platforms have implemented reporting systems for false information. Here’s how to flag MDI on each platform:

• Facebook: Next to the post containing the MDI, click on the three asterisks, Support/Report post, False News, Next, and then Done.
• Instagram: Click the three dots above the post, Report, It’s inappropriate and False information.
• YouTube: Reporting MDI on YouTube differs based on whether you’re watching on your desktop, iOS or Android mobile device, and whether you’re reporting a video, comment, or playlist. For instructions, read Google’s support page.
• X :Next to the offending post, tap the downward arrow, Report Post, It’s Abusive or Harmful, and fill out the information.
• TikTok:Long-press on the video, tap “Report,” select “Misinformation,” then choose the specific category that applies.

Recap

Since humans come with built-in cognitive biases regardless of their political beliefs, we’re all susceptible to believing or even sharing misinformation. But by verifying sources, reading laterally and gathering diverse viewpoints, we can shake off these biases and lean toward objectivity, which is in the best interest of our democracy.

References

1. Northeastern Global News. (2024). New research sheds light on how the 2016 and 2020 elections were won, lost — and the ‘critical’ role disinformation played.
   https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/10/22/election-disinformation-research/
2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (2025). Republicans are flagged more often than Democrats for sharing misinformation on X’s Community Notes.
   https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2502053122
3. Pew Research Center. (2025). Social Media and News Fact Sheet.
   https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/
4. Advanced Science News. (2025). Study finds 75% of Facebook links shared without clicking or reading.
   https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/study-finds-75-of-facebook-links-shared-without-clicking-or-reading/
5. University of Chicago. (2025). The SIFT Method.
   https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/c.php?g=1241077&p=9082322
6. University of Victoria. (2025). How Fake News Spreads.
   https://libguides.uvic.ca/fakenews/how-it-spreads
7. American Psychological Association. (2024). What psychological factors make people susceptible to believe and act on misinformation?.
   https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-belief-action
8. MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. (2024). Reducing Misinformation Sharing With Accuracy Prompts. https://ide.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/RB__3-31-24.pdf?x93667