Why it is important for the press offices of institutions and political parties to respond to the questions of fact-checkers in the fight against disinformation

In the fight against disinformation, verifiers use many tools to check whether the content circulating on the internet is real. Many of them involve making use of technology. But there are times when, in addition to more specific verification techniques, we have to use classic journalism: pick up the phone and ask the press offices of institutions, political parties and scientific organizations .

Thus we have been able to deny that such a politician has made statements that he has not uttered, that he has published a tweet that he has never written or that he has approved a measure that does not exist.

Disinformation is a problem and it is important that press officials of institutions or parties are aware of it . In order to do our work at Maldito Bulo we apply our methodology , which is public and which in several points establishes that the response of the institution or the person affected by the misinformation is necessary in order to classify it as a hoax.

In this article we tell you the reasons why we all win if the press offices answer the questions that we verifiers ask to deny content, no matter how obvious the hoax may seem.

1. When we go into denying content it is because it is going viral or because it is dangerous

Our methodology is very clear regarding the reasons why we deny a hoax. We do not deny content that has barely had a foothold unless it poses a danger : we do not want to amplify a hoax with little diffusion. Although there are moments of crisis, as occurred during the coronavirus pandemic or when natural disasters occur, for example, in which misinformation can pose a problem for people’s health. Another moment of crisis can occur during electoral campaigns, when misinformation can undermine the foundations of the electoral system.

Therefore, when we make the decision to verify a potential hoax, it is because it is potentially dangerous or because we know that it is going viral. How do we know? We have tools to identify it.

Many times, when content goes viral on a social network like Twitter or Facebook, it has already moved to private channels like WhatsApp or Telegram before . Through our WhatsApp chatbot ( +34 644 229 319 ) we receive content that is circulating, including those that move on WhatsApp. If something reaches us several times in a short time and if it also appears as «forwarded many times», we know that this content is being shared a lot.

For these reasons we have a more complete view of the degree of virality of a possible hoax than the press offices of some institutions, political parties or scientific organizations. And if we consult them it is precisely because we know that something is moving a lot and their response, in some cases, is essential to be able to say that something is false, according to our methodology.

2. Yes, people are believing it

There are contents that are disseminated and, when we see them the first time, we may think that no one is going to believe it because it is a satire, a joke that makes us laugh as soon as we see it or because it seems obvious that it is false.

But experience as fact-checkers tells us that we have to stop thinking as an elite : not everyone has to know everything and when something goes viral as real it is because there are people who believe it. Nor can we ridicule those who believe it . They may not have let us in on a hoax in this case, but it may happen to us on another occasion.

An example is this headline that circulated years ago: » They discover a mosquito that can make you pregnant with a single bite . » Although it sounds funny, we had to deny that it was true because many people shared it thinking it was real.

We have many examples of this type, other more recent ones, in which at first glance it may seem that the content that is circulating is too obviously false and that, therefore, people are not believing it, but in reality They go viral a lot as if they were real .

This is the case of this tweet published by an account that calls itself «parody» and that impersonates the newspaper El Mundo on Twitter. The message includes quotes from an advisor to the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero , along with a photo of a woman. Neither that person was Montero’s advisor nor were the statements real. However, the tweet was widely shared as if it were from El Mundo and many people believed it. Screenshots of the tweet jumped to other social networks, where they were shared hundreds of times.

3. Publishing a denial helps flatten the misinformation curve

There are hoaxes that go viral very quickly and reach a large number of people in a short time. This was the case of the audio in which, supposedly, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, had confused the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, with Bin Laden .

Researcher Mariluz Congosto, specialized in analyzing discourse on Twitter, analyzed the evolution of this hoax once it reached that social network. Before getting there it had already gone viral through WhatsApp, as we could see from the number of queries that came to our chatbot about this audio from people who had received it on their mobile phones.

From Maldita.es we published the denial the morning after it began to circulate through the messaging channel, the night before. According to data from Congosto, obtained from the analysis of the tweets that mentioned the hoax versus those that shared the denial, the denial “dramatically slowed” the spread of the hoax on Twitter .

Precisely, part of our action against misinformation consists of promoting the dissemination of denials among the community . Spreading the denial helps the truth go viral and, in the best of cases, the denial would reach people before the hoax itself . Thus, whoever receives it later already has the tools to know that what they have received is not true and not to continue sharing it.

As we see, publishing a denial helps stop the curve of misinformation .

4. If there is a published denial, people will find it if they do a search on the hoax

Related to the previous point, there will be people who receive content and do a search on it, either to read more about the topic or to find out if it is true or not.

If the content is a hoax and there is a published denial, whoever searches for it will find the denial and will have at hand the necessary tools to know that what they have received is not true.

In general, not everyone has time to verify everything that comes to them or what they see on social networks, so a denial published by reliable fact-checkers makes it much easier for these people to know that they are dealing with misinformation.

5. Not going into denial only makes misinformation flow without restrictions.

On the other hand, not going to deny a hoax that is going viral will only ensure that that content continues moving without any type of brake.

Verification tools are available to anyone, but experience also tells us that if we verifiers do not do this job, it will be more difficult for anyone who receives the hoax to verify whether it is true or not.

Without a denial that explains why it is a hoax, misinformation will have an easier time continuing to move. On the other hand, the sooner we publish the denial, the sooner the misinformation curve begins to flatten . And with the collaboration of the cabinets, our verifications can be published faster.

6. Denial gives people a weapon to stop lying in private and family networks

A denial gives those people who receive a hoax the possibility to send it to the person who spreads the misinformation, so we are giving them a weapon to stop the lie .

In fact, we need that intervention. Verifiers can monitor the disinformation that circulates on public networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. On the other hand, WhatsApp conversations are private and end-to-end encrypted, so we cannot enter them to see what is moving.

That is why it is important both that they send us what is circulating to our WhatsApp chatbot, so that we can identify the misinformation and decide what we are going to deny, and that users have that weapon to stop the hoaxes that circulate in messaging channels .

7. If there is a denial, our WhatsApp chatbot will automatically respond to whoever sends us the hoax

The content that is suspected of being disinformation that we are asked about, whether through WhatsApp, our social networks or by email, we register in our database and every time someone sends it to us we note a recurrence. That’s how we know something is moving.

This database is connected to our WhatsApp service, so if we link a denial to a hoax, every time someone sends it to us, the chatbot will automatically send verification . Once again, we will be giving tools to users of private networks to help stop misinformation.

8. A hoax can go viral again and having a denial helps stop it sooner

Hoaxes circulate and it is possible that when one goes viral there is a peak of misinformation and then, apparently, it stops circulating or doing so with such force. But over time many of these hoaxes are shared again and, if they do, there will already be a denial to stop it.

It is so common for this to happen that at Maldita.es we have given them a name: we call them “zombie hoaxes”, misinformation that reappears after a few months . There are many examples of this type and one of the clearest for us is the case of the false Manitas Liminas police alert . It is a hoax that has been circulating for years and that we denied in 2019, but which circulates very strongly again from time to time through WhatsApp. For a while it seems that it has stopped spreading and one day we begin to receive several queries about the same content.

You have asked us about him more than 1,000 times, but when he returns we have the denial at hand, which reaches each person who asks us about this hoax. This way we help prevent it from spreading even further .

9. Our methodology forces us in some cases to have an official response to be able to say that content is a hoax

Our verifications , with their different types (Hoax, No evidence or What do we know), are subject to a strict methodology that must always be followed so that we can publish them . Therefore, in addition to knowing it very well, a team of editors is in charge of reviewing each of the articles before publishing it and at least four of them have to give their approval before publishing, so that nothing is missed.

This methodology contemplates that, for content to be classified as hoax, there are cases in which we need the press teams of institutions, political parties or scientific organizations to respond to the queries we ask them.

Although there are times when, with other tests, we can know that something is a hoax, we have to follow our methodology because it is the only way to do our work in the most transparent and rigorous way possible. This implies that yes, we need a response from the cabinets.

On more than one occasion a press team has told us that they would not respond to our query about content because it was «too obvious» that it was misinformation. But because we did not want to respond, we have not been able to publish the denial or we have had to change the category according to the methodology, going from being classified as a hoax to misinformation without evidence.

So no matter how obvious the hoax may seem, we need that answer .

10. We are more inclined to believe the hoaxes that we have seen many times

Each and every one of us has biases that sometimes cause our brains to mislead us . One of these biases, the familiarity bias, means that the more times we are exposed to content, the more likely we are to accept it as true .

If we do not put efforts into denying and trying to stop this hoax that is spreading, it will continue to do so and will not only reach more people, but it is possible that those who have already reached it before will see it again more than once. (the same hoax or others on the same topic). This way they will be more likely to believe them.

In short, it is important that press offices collaborate in the fight against disinformation, no matter how obvious a hoax it may seem. As fact-checkers, we have tools to know when something is going viral and if people are believing it. If we make a query to a press team it is because it is necessary and the collaboration of the cabinets is important to be able to publish a denial soon. The sooner we publish, the sooner the misinformation curve flattens.