Thread by @MollyMcKew

As citizens in a highly-connected digital world facing crisis, we must understand that how we engage & amplify information shapes the environment around us—for good or bad.

A call for better information citizenship

1st piece in a new series for @SURfdn

standuprepublic.com/in-a-time-of-c…

What does it mean to be a better information citizen?

1 - accept that disinformation campaigns work in altering perception and behavior, including our own, which is why foreign and domestic malign actors invest time and resources into deploying them

2 - consciously evaluate how you act as a citizen in a connected, digital world facing crisis; understand that how you engage & amplify information shapes overall information environment for you, your community + nation; choose to be a better consumer + purveyor of information

3 - scrutinize both the sources of information in front of you and the conduit for how it reached you. Do you understand the source and motivation?

4 - be constantly vigilant not just about the veracity of the information before you, but the purpose of it. Why is it in front of you, why now, and what does it aim to achieve?

5 - understand how the tactics and narratives of disinformation target us, work on us — all of us — and how we, as individuals, can alter those outcomes, limit their reach in our communities, and disincentivize investment into future disinformation campaigns

6 - endeavor to positively engage others to encourage the habits of good information citizenship

Over the coming months, we will use the #defusingdisinfo series to explore how disinformation tactics and narratives work on us, how we can be better prepared to lessen their effectiveness, and how each of us can be better information citizens when so much is at stake