For some people, critical thinking is one of the solutions to deal with the current infodemia, by increasing people's ability to think critically and not to be subject to various untruths and misinformation.
However, the question that no one has been able to answer for years has been how to bring this body of knowledge to a sufficient number of people so that we have a sufficient number of critically thinking people where disinformation campaigns have no chance of succeeding and influencing society.
The answer comes from Checkbot. A simple chatbot that anyone can use for free on Facebook today. You can find it at the link - https://www.facebook.com/CheckbotSK - Its creators are Peter Jančarík and Tomáš Kriššák, who also led an accompanying campaign aimed at spreading awareness and understanding of various knowledge in the field of information security, media literacy and critical thinking.
The big advantage of Checkbot is the fact that it is available to everyone, for free, 24 hours 7 days a week. All you have to do is find his old woman on Facebook and Chechbot will immediately start chatting with anyone who has just visited him.
Checkbot will first request the information that the user last encountered on the Internet. Subsequently, Checkbot can verify it and find out whether its source does not come from an untrustworthy disinfoscene environment in Slovakia. For this purpose, he can verify web links and facebook links from the public databases konspiratori.sk and blbec.online. Checkbot also offers a brief guide on how to prevent misinformation. Checkbot will do a lot for each user, but everyone will be able to recognize gold and mud on their own.
Therefore, Checkbot recalls the most common manipulations of the dezinfo scene:
1. Sticking
Disinformation sites have a lot in common. Many like to offer miraculous recipes for cancer, they wield Soros and Illuminati, they use words like maidanization, chemtrails or the new world order.
If these or similar phrases are in the text, be careful. Labeling opponents is one of the tools that misinformation media often uses to create a sense of danger.
2. Unknown or questionable author
Always check if the author of the article is known. If so, look at what he wrote in the past. You may be surprised. Non-authored articles are often suspicious.
3. Image manipulation
What image does the article use? Is it authentic or is it a pipe? They like disinformation sites.
You can browse the image, for example, via Google image search. It will show you where the image was used before and in what context.
4. Inducing fear
Do you feel that the article you are reading is supposed to make you fear a certain group of people or individuals? In this case, be careful. If someone is trying to raise concerns about a group or individual, it can often be a manipulation of ulterior motives.
5. Attack on people
Does an article, image, or video attack a group of people? Attention, we already had this here. Hate speech can end very badly, and a serious medium should not afford such a thing. He is no longer far from verbal attacks to deeds.
6. The counterparty is missing
Always check in the article whether the other party has also been given the opportunity to comment. No serious journalist will write an article without looking at the other side.
Of course, there are also those who thought negative things about the project and called Checkbot as a source of propaganda. In one response to a similar stimulus, Checkbot finally captured not only how it works, but also what we all need to look out for.
"Barricades that build prejudices and simplifications are present, but one often needs to adhere to them for many psychological reasons. At the same time, there are many verification criteria for objective truth, which help to get rid of these distortions. My goal is to show the public the basic procedures, how to start this process and how to improve it. I have never been concerned with pushing an ideology or supporting one of the many parties that are building and standing on their barricades today. I am interested in the objective world and the possibilities of conveying the knowledge of objective perception to everyone. ” said Checkbot.