Charting a path forward through the misinformation crisis

So to start us off , we go back to our old friend from the University of Alberta , professor Tim Caulfield . As you've heard in our earlier episodes , tim has been on the front lines of the battle against misinformation for many years and recently published a book called the Certainty Illusion . We asked him to hold our hand and tell us how this gets better .

Right , and in the United States we're seeing , you know , research institutions and keep in mind , you know , good science , good , trustworthy science .

You know that's absolutely fundamentally important to you know , pulling the universe out of the rabbit hole , like we need good science , and we're seeing it being eroded in the United States in a really horrendous way that's going to take maybe generations to correct . So you know that's bad news .

The other bit of bad news we've touched on a couple times is the degree to which this has all become political . This has all become about political identity and research tells us that once it becomes about politics , it becomes much more difficult to change people's minds . You know whether you're left or right , you know it .

Just once it becomes about politics about your tribe , you know , about your community can become much more difficult to change people's minds , and there's been really interesting studies to back that up . You know one that came , I'm going to say , just like , two weeks ago , talked about health , misinformation .

And once it becomes about politics , you know , the rhetoric around that topic becomes more sticky , in other words , hard to change people's minds , and it becomes nastier and nastier , and I've certainly seen that play out . So that's the bad news . That's a little bit of the bad news .

The good news is , despite all of those hurdles , we are learning more and more about this phenomenon . There's so much great research going on big , well-done studies . I've been doing this for a long time and it seemed like forever . The studies were small and speculative . It's hard to study this well .

Now we're getting all this research that's coming at it using different methods , and I think that's fantastic . You know , this is one of those areas where it's going to take a lot of research , I think , because it's hard to study it well . There are so many variables and that's starting to happen . We're starting to see more and more voices , diverse voices .

You know young , creative brains are getting involved in this fight and that's such good news . We have an initiative called Hashtag Science Up First that I started with Senator Stan Kutcher and now I'm just an advisor on it . It's being run by these , as I said , young , creative , diverse minds from across Canada and they're really making a difference .

They're creating positive content that is completely independent , that speaks to people's concerns in a creative way , right In a creative , positive way , and that's just one initiative . There are so many great voices out there , so I think that's something that we can be really excited about .

I can't believe how the difference between even just five or six years ago , the number of great , passionate , creative science communicators out there so that's really really good news . And the other good news is at every level of government , there is a growing recognition of the importance of this topic .

Yes , we've seen what's happening in the United States , but if you look at the UN , if you look at the EU , if you look at the World Health Organization , this has become a paramount topic that is just completely viewed as critically important , and that's good news too . It wasn't always like that . Fighting misinformation was kind of a niche issue . Not anymore .

It's center stage .

What role should regulation or platform accountability ?

Those who are trying to stop misinformation research or trying to delegitimize misinformation research really try to portray it as a force of censorship , that those who do misinformation research or who are concerned about misinformation are against freedom of expression .

And , on the contrary , I'm like a strong , strong supporter of the marketplace of ideas , of freedom of expression , and I think it's really important to highlight that most of the tools that we use in this space to counter misinformation , they're utilized in the marketplace of ideas .

Critical thinking skills , media literacy , debunks , prebunks , even nudges , I think , are part of the marketplace of ideas . It's not about censorship , it's about getting good information out there in a way that can make a difference .

But , yes , regulation , I think , is relevant , and even when you're talking about regulation , you're not necessarily talking about , you know , deep platforming individuals or silencing into individuals . We could be talking about , and we should be talking about , transparency , right , and that brings us to these platforms .

We need more transparency about the regulations , about the algorithms . We need more transparency about the what , what incentives are sort of baked into those , those algorithms , and I think that talking about transparency is a more politically palatable idea .

In fact , there's been some research that has been done that found that there's strong support for the regulation of AI , especially in the context of elections , and it's bipartisan support . So you frame it as regulating AI and deep fakes , instead of regulating misinformation , which is often viewed as censorship and cancel culture .

You get support because people recognize that AI and deep fakes can do real harm to our democracy , and especially when it's framed in a way where you're talking about transparency right , just trying to make sure that we are all aware of what's going on .

So I think that's you know kind of regulatory step , that step that we should be taking , and I think that's you know kind of regulatory step that we should be taking , and I think , I think and maybe I'm being naive I think it's a step that we can make .

But you've also probably had the same experience as the comedian Ronny Chieng trying to explain all this to someone who is more digitally naive .

and that lighting state doesn't even make sense for that image and that's not standard dimensions for a news article . Okay , I can't give you this knowledge . It's like Malcolm Gladwell blink . I've just seen so much shit on the internet , my brain instantly filters it . You'll never have this skill set , so just stay off the internet .

This world is not for you anymore . Stop making decisions .

Other countries are doing it , so what's needed to make it possible in Canada ?

certainly are still parts of the country , there are still communities , where access is inadequate but it needs to go beyond that . It needs to go to covering all of the aspects , the core competencies that we've identified of digital media literacy , and one of those is access . Not just having access , but knowing how to use it .

So we know , for instance , there are a lot of supports that are available for low-income people or other people who may have difficulty accessing online content , but those don't help if you don't know how to use them .

Similarly , knowing about assistive technology that might be used by people with disabilities , by seniors , by people for whom English is a second or third or whatever language . These are some of the things that we consider to be access skills .

But beyond that , we need to be teaching those basic skills , what we call the use skills how you navigate , how you use digital tools , how you communicate , you use digital tools , how you communicate , the understand skills , how we critically engage that idea of critical thinking and intellectual humility and all of the more concrete skills we've been talking about , like

reverse image search , finding and verifying sources , things like that .

And the last are what we call the engage skills , which are about being an engaged member of the , your online communities , helping to shape the norms and values of them in a positive way , but also knowing how to use online tools and media tools more generally to be an engaged citizen in offline politics .

So really , it is vital that any strategy is going to cover that whole spectrum , and it has to also cover the entire life course , because as much as K to 12 is the heart of what we do . We also know that that's not enough , that today's adult generations did not learn the skills .

Even if , as I did , you did media literacy in school , that won't have prepared you for the information ecosystem we're in now , and , similarly , the information ecosystem that today's students will find themselves in in 10 or 20 or 30 years will likely be very different , and so it has to have a commitment to lifelong learning and it has to be equitable .

It has to be reaching all of the communities , all of the people in Canada and recognizing their diverse needs .

So , to begin with , they do have it integrated in the k-12 system and it's not siloed , it's not a single subject . It is treated as a subject , but it's also integrated across the curriculum and they don't focus just on what might be considered digital literacy .

They recognize that digital and media literacy are part of the same discipline , that they reinforce one another . So they didn't respond just to online disinformation , but instead their program also addresses things like advertising , other ways that we need to engage with media , but they also see it as a whole of society problem .

It's not something that is just addressed in schools . It is something that is seen as every citizens responsibility . One of the things that other countries are doing they've done this in the uk , they've done it in australia is just getting benchmarks of current digital media literacy knowledge and practice , and that's something that we don't have in canada .

We don't have really any sense of the average digital media literacy skills , and so , going back to the very beginning of our conversation when you asked me to grade us as a country . I'm really just guessing , because we have so little data and it tends to be not comprehensive .

It may focus on a very narrow component and you have to piece together data from a lot of different places . We don't even really know what is being taught

in schools . We know what's in the curriculum , but as a former teacher , I can tell you there's a big gap between what's in the curriculum and what actually happens in the classroom .

So , at a very minimum , we need to be doing what they're doing in places like the UK and Australia and find out what our current baseline levels are , because , of course , any strategy to be effective , we'll have to have those baselines so we can measure its success or lack of success and make changes where we need to .

Solutions moving forward we cut off with Byron Holland . Byron is the CEO and president here at CIRA and he began by talking us through some of the potential dangers of AI .

And one of the real challenges here is , as the AI tools become easier to access , they can become literally weaponized by individuals , organizations or , you know , in the disinformation state , hostile states .

You know literally Canada's adversaries , and they do it to undermine trust , polarize the debate , confuse the public and maybe even impact things like our own elections .

But the upside is we can also use AI as a potential solution for this .

So sure , ai is part of the problem , but it's also part of the solution , and we're already seeing some great tools that are AI based for fact checking , content moderation even starting with real time misinformation detection , and if you can get an AI tool to help flag false information literally in real time , faster than a human could , that's going to be a huge

asset to us in this , you know , challenging information ecosystem of mis and disinformation .

We can certainly look back to the beginning of the industrial age , when all kinds of new and revolutionary technologies were happening , whether it was a steam engine in particular , or other innovations like electricity , where those innovations radically changed society as they knew it then . And for the good , steam engines were great , as was electricity .

Know , for the good , uh , you know , steam engines were great , as was electricity , but of course , in the manufacturing element , you know you had challenges like , in that era , child labor , pollution . Then , along with innovation has to follow some rules and regulation .

If we bring it a little forward , even to our , you know , more memorable past or more recent past , you think of the automobile , an amazing innovation . But there was a time where we didn't have seatbelts or airbags or ABS , brakes or even good roads . So that incredible innovation of the automobile happened , the combustion engine .

And then we needed to follow it on with some rules of the road so that the cars could be safer , so they could be much more environmentally friendly than they were originally . And then even think about it from an externality point of view . You know , unfortunately in Canada we've recently seen vehicles used literally as weapons vehicles used literally as weapons .

So the broader society has to think about how do we protect our ecosystem from that tool in the wrong hands . And you know , that's that's kind of the landscape that we're in . But I think there are some some real key ways that you know we can learn from those issues and we can make positive change .

You know we can do things on the technology side , where there's lots of technologies we can implement . Think like two-factor authentication . That's a small step but with a big impact on security . Now we need similar simple yet powerful interventions for people to protect themselves in terms of how they consume and share information online . Ai tools can do that .

We do need some smart regulation . You know I'm a big believer in the free and open internet , but we do need some rules of the road , and sometimes that means a higher level regulation . But what I would say is probably the most important thing is education , and we need to start that . You know , in grade school or before you know . Think of it like we .

Over the years we've had health and safety training . Well , now we need digital literacy training , and that starts with the youngest people in our society . But you know , I think we've all seen some older folks do some dumb things along the way too . They need it as well , and it's that digital literacy , combined with

good critical thinking skills that we can teach to young people at the earliest ages which I think will make the biggest difference over the long haul .

We as an organization don't moderate content we're not in that space at all but we operate some of the cleanest internet infrastructure in the world . You don't have to take my word for that Independently verified .

But we do other stuff too , like we sponsor original research , like Canada's Internet Factbook , where we provide Canadians , both individuals and policy makers , with reliable , verifiable data-driven insights to help them better understand and navigate , in particular , data-driven insights to help them better understand and navigate , in particular , the mis and disinformation ecosystem

today . We also do things like offer CIRA's Canadian Shield , which is a free , privacy-focused DNS service that helps block access to malicious domains to you know , to prevent things like phishing , malware , ransomware , other cyber threats . So that's a very concrete thing that we offer free to any Canadian .

And we certainly also share lots of information from you know , from practitioners in the space of keeping the internet clean , making it run well and keeping it safe . So there's a lot of stuff just even on our website we're sharing through social media and other things to help individuals and policymakers make good decisions when they're online .

It's really about giving people a kind of mental vaccine , if you will , to prevent false or , you know , prevent onboarding falsehoods , and essentially what it does is show the individual how misinformation is actually made and spread before they encounter it in the wild , and the idea is , of course , that if they know and understand how it's done , it's going to make

them less susceptible to it . So I think this aligns with how we think about building digital resilience Fundamentally , prepare people before the damage is done . So it's definitely one of the important tools in the toolbox of a resilient digital society .

You know , in school they're getting reading , writing and arithmetic . We need to add a fourth to that and that is digital literacy . And if we do that right from the earliest days of a child's education , we can make a huge dent in this problem .

And we've already seen examples of that , particularly in the Baltic states and the Nordic states that share borders with Russia . You can imagine the kind of disinformation ecosystem happening up there , and they've shown great results . Teach the kids young . They learn it for life , right ?

So in the K-12 space regularly and it's not a one and done just like math , you know it's going to be every year there's an update , you learn a little more , get a little more sophisticated , and this isn't going to be a nice to have , right , this is going to be a core skill for participating in modern life , you know .

And as technology evolves , our education system must evolve with it .

Right ensuring students are not just consuming information or information online , but really questioning it and understanding it , and then dismissing it when it's obviously fake or misleading , so absolutely critical for it to be taught in schools do you think that canada needs a national strategy to address these very issues ? I absolutely do .

You know when a new innovation happens , especially like a general technology , innovation that's going to get used in multiple different ways , like AI will be and already is , quite frankly , let alone social media or even the Internet itself . The underlying technology it's been a pretty open , regulation-free environment technology .

It's been a pretty open , regulation free environment and that was really helpful with getting amazing innovations online .

But we're very much seeing some of the downsides of it and that's where you know , like I said in the automotive example , at some point you need to put some rules of the road in , and that's where I believe we're at right now , because the harms associated with this amazing technology are just too great to be left completely unchecked .

So definitely we need some regulations . But I also believe that individual Canadians can do a few things , like the basic attention business model .

So think social media is about amplification and outrage , and that's what many of the social media platforms are really good at , and they grab our attention , they make us share it and and that's where the business model lies in monetizing all of that activity . So one thing individual Canadians can definitely do is just take a breath before you share something .

Pause before sharing , If the content that you're seeing is triggering a very strong emotional reaction . Take a moment Check the source . Who created it , who benefits from it . There's , you know there's some easy red flags , like dramatic headlines , otherwise known as clickbait .

If it feels like clickbait , it probably is , which means that's a flag for false or misleading information . And one of the easiest things to do just cross-check the facts with credible news sources . You know

, one thing I would say is social media is not news . Go to a real source . You know , most people have never looked at the editorial policy of a major newspaper or broadcast outlet or broadcast outlet .

But things like verified sources , multiple independent sources , fact-checking , those are all part of what a lot of the main traditional media have as part of what they need to do in order to publish something . So just because some guy or girl you know has a YouTube channel and shares their opinion , that doesn't make it real .

Go to the source , see if it's valid or not , and I think that's , you know , that's a pretty straightforward thing that the average Canadian can do .

We just used to call it propaganda in an analog world .

An analog world , but in an analog world you didn't have the amplification and the pace with which false information can be spread , and that's what really makes it different now , and that's why some of the rules that we have had around free speech aren't necessarily strong enough to stand up to the speed and amplification of the modern era .

So we have to be very careful about it , for sure .

But I think there are some obvious places where regulation could help , particularly around transparency and accountability with some of the major information distribution platforms , because in today's polarized media landscape , you know , we see misinformation , disinformation , is often weaponized to shape narratives and , as I said a moment ago , that's part of why media literacy

is so important , like know who's giving you , and , let's face it , everybody makes mistakes . But by and large , traditional media are bound by certain standards where they can't do it intentionally . So that's a good place to start for relatively clean information .

But regulation , understanding the business model of the major social media platforms will be very helpful , because we're at a point right now where most of those platforms are externalizing the costs of their business , so they get all the revenue , but the harms that are happening on those platforms , the cost of those harms , is being externalized to people , individuals

and society as a whole . So I think there's some regulatory options there that could be very helpful . You know , the interesting thing too is that there's a clear disconnect . 75% of Canadians roughly get their news online yet half of those say they don't trust any of these online platforms to provide accurate information .

So you know I think that's an interesting dissonance that many Canadians are ready to have the information landscape improved and would probably be open to some regulation . And certainly we all have an active role to play in sharpening our media literacy skills , which , as I said , starts with the youngest among us but continues on .

Easy to say , hard to do , but governments definitely have a role to play , especially around the accountability and transparency part . But I think often some of the most effective efforts are going to come from trusted , independent , ideally nonpartisan organizations , particularly when it comes to education and digital literacy .

This , really this is a technology and a time that impacts all of society , so it needs to be a whole-of-society effort as well .

its kind of public inception . So I am positive . Public inception so I am positive , but I also recognize that it is a tool . Humans created it . Humans can use tools poorly and some , some of us do , unfortunately . It is a complex challenge , but we are not powerless .

You know , more people are aware of some of these challenges , some of these nuanced challenges , than ever before . We have better tools . We have smarter strategies .

There are strong communities in this space that are making a big difference and I think you know , if we invest in the right education throughout young people's lives , build trust through some smart and light touch regulation and stay ahead of the technology curve from an awareness and critical thinking perspective , we can absolutely make progress .

The internet and the innovative tools that ride on it are a powerful force for good . We just need to make sure that it stays that way .

This series has been written and produced by Kevin McAnenna , and thanks also to Spencer Callahan , shanila Saeed and Glenna Tapper from CIRA . If you still want to reach out , you can email us at podcast at CIRAca and we'll get back to you . We'll see you again next time . Bye , we'll see you again next time . Bye .