Who will fact check the social media posts that come during a disaster? We will have to be the ones who do it. While the media can assist with the types of things seen in Ukraine, that won’t happen in smaller disasters. In the meantime, we have all these hits on the fake postings — further spreading false information.
Something to be totally aware of is making sure you don’t bet the farm on a social media post that provides some “out of the ordinary” information. If one person saw it, there will be other people seeing and reporting on the same incident. I’m an advocate for using “citizens as sensor” you just need to be smart about it.
Here’s a CNN story on fake social media from the Russia-Ukraine conflict: “Fact-checking fake videos of Ukraine conflict.”
