Oct 17, 2022.  By Sierra Zhang

I use the web majorly for 3 reasons: academics, fun, and interest. I am very alert when browsing for academic reasons to filter out unreliable information by only following credible sources. When browsing for fun, I tend to trust reliable sources (for example, truth-worthy friends). On the other hand, when browsing for my interest, I can see how some cognitive biases affect how I treat information online — sometimes agreeing with those who share similar ideas. 

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In her article “How to spot fake news, propaganda and deceptive social media posts,” tech marketing advisor Robin Cangie summarized five steps to recognize propaganda on Facebook. I think her fifth tip is of the greatest value to me, “if you notice yourself getting riled up, pause. Take a breath” (Cangie). Whenever I see a post that presents very polarized opinions, I would be mad and screenshot the post, debunk it with my own posts, or send it to close friends. But, in fact, these posts are meant to stimulate reposts or viral discussions so they gain their “fifteen minutes of fame.” When I try to debunk them, I push this faulty post to more people. But there is one thing I do not understand: why would people come up with propaganda-type posts — how are they beneficial to bloggers themselves? I could not agree more when Cangie called a critical eye against propaganda “the best defense we have.” When the internet penetrates so many aspects of our lives, it enables a new way for more people’s voices to be heard and spread. This is, in most cases, hugely beneficial. However, let us ask ourselves a question: does every internet user have enough skills or mindset to filter out misleading or polarizing information? The answer is “no,” in my experience. These skills and mindsets are an interplay of family education, school education, and political environment. But under the inequality in education (which leads to insufficient family education for the next generations) and political propaganda, many empowering movements eventually evolved into the chaos of division, polarization, and privilege-seeking actions. I can see many polarized opinions or single stories about equality movements in my Twitter feeds that may eventually develop into propaganda depending on the number of the audience. Here I wish everybody would have this “best defense” of critical eyes and think individually — almost everything is rooted in a system of events and should not be judged based upon single stories. 

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One very relevant discussion that has practical values and is interesting is about our level of freedom on the Internet. I believe freedom is basic to web experience and vital to enable everyone to share their experience and voices. However, what is often ignored is the equal amount of awareness needed and the responsibilities that come with the right to enjoy freedom, just like how Peter Wade, staff writer at Rolling Stone, quotes in the article “As Covid Cases Rise, U.S. Surgeon General Issues Warning Against Health Misinformation,” “If you’re not sure, not sharing is often the prudent thing to do” (Wade). In this case, sharing information online is part of our right to freedom, but thinking twice before sharing is part of our awareness. Deciding not to share what is unsure is our responsibility not to share misinformation. I do not think freedom means saying whatever without considering the influence of the content. Also, thinking twice before posting is not a backlash of liberty. Instead, rights, awareness, and responsibilities are the three core elements of a cleaner web experience. But just as I analyzed above in section (2), I think the lack of equal quality education lies behind the lack of awareness and responsibilities. To improve our network environment, we might need to first work on eliminating educational inequality.