Colm O'Regan: Just because you think Prince William might say something racist doesn't make it true

Occasionally you just want something to be true because it feels true. Recently, a viral tweet claimed the Top 10 list of most-visited Facebook pages in America had changed. Previous Top 10s were pages of right wing pundits and organisations. Now they were a bit more in the centre. 

This could be because the Russian bot farms who allegedly help boost the American right were now restricted by sanctions or focussed elsewhere on claiming black was white. (A bot farm is a big automated campaign to create millions of artificial opinions on social media to influence people.) 

Then, Caroline Orr Bueno, an expert in disinformation showed with some very straightforward explanations, why this was likely not true. She wasn’t saying that there isn’t a problem with bot farms, just that in this case, there wasn’t enough data to make a conclusion and essentially, correlation was not causation. Which means “Just because you see two things happening at the same time, doesn’t mean one is caused by the other.” 

I’m gradually learning that this is so fundamental a principle they should be teaching it in school with the times tables.

It’s a fundamental principle, but it hadn’t stop me from sharing it without question. I wanted it to be true. It confirmed my bias about The Other Side. Also it gave me hope. If disinformation was restricted maybe I’d be less likely to be arguing with some suspiciously symmetrical-headed fella about being a Sheeple in the Facebook comments underneath a local newspaper story about illegal dumping. And I felt clever reading it and others might think me clever too.

We’re mostly good at spotting stuff that seems obviously dodgy. If someone sends me a message in Google Translate Irish saying ‘Hello Sexy, Do You Like Sexy Party With Me? Even though I understand why they think I’d be a good addition to their Sexy Party, I’m more on the alert. But when a thing feels quite true, confirms our suspicions, we fall over ourselves to take it at face value.

I did it again the day after. Prince William was accused of saying something possibly racist about how war is normal in Africa and Asia but not Europe. It fitted exactly what we all thought Prince William would say. Except he didn't say it. He was misquoted.

In the context of The Whole World On Fire, this is miniscule. But we all have a responsibility in this new sharing but not caring society. Whether it's war, climate change, a sleb in the news that we thought was a tool already, we have to start being more careful with spreading news. 

It’s natural. Gossip makes the world go around and we’ve been confirming our biases about that Clown Down The Road or Herself In The Yellow House since Methusaleh was a boy. (And he was pure wild too as a boy but what would you expect? The father was the same). But thanks to social media, we can do more damage than whispering at the back of Mass.

Mike Caulfield, another misinformation expert has an acronym SIFT to know how what to do with information. SIFT stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims.

Stop : Am I qualified to stand over it, confident I understand what I’m sharing? I can’t just share because it makes me feel good. Investigate the source – Who are they? Do I trust them? Find someone else saying this I trust a bit more. Trace back the claim – when did this first get said. By who? So now, am I still happy to put my name to it?

I know I’ll still get through all those stages and still make a gom of myself sometime soon. But it’s never too late to start again.