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Already, bad information about the Russian occupation has found large audiences on platforms primarily designed to promote engaging content.

2016 video on TikTok a training exercise was redesigned to create the false impression that Russian soldiers were parachuting into Ukraine; It has been viewed millions of times. A mistranslation of a statement widely circulated on Twitter and shared by journalists incorrectly stated that the war near Chernobyl was disturbing a nuclear waste site (original phrase actually warned that fight maybe disturbs nuclear waste).

Harmful propaganda and misinformation are often unintentionally magnified as people face the firestorm of breaking news and interact with viral posts about a horrific event. This guide is for those who want to avoid helping bad actors.

We have published some of these recommendations before. Black Lives Matter protests in 2020and again before US elections later that year. The information below has been updated and expanded to include some special considerations for news from Ukraine.

Your attention is important…

First, realize that what you do online makes a difference. “People often think that because they’re not influencers, they’re not politicians, they’re not journalists, that’s what they do. [online] It doesn’t matter,” said Whitney Phillips, associate professor of communications and rhetoric studies at Syracuse University in 2020. But it matters. Sharing questionable information, even with a small circle of friends and family, can lead to its wider dissemination.

… and so are your angry quote tweets and duets.

As urgent news unfolds, well-meaning people can quote, tweet, share or duet with a post on social media and challenge and condemn it. Twitter and Facebook introduced new rules, moderation tactics, and fact-check provisions to combat misinformation. But interact with false information none risks scaling up the content you are trying to minimize because it signals the platform that you find it interesting. Instead of joining a post that you know is wrong, try flagging it for review by the platform you saw it on.

Stop.

Digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield has developed a method he calls SIFT for evaluating online information: “Stop, Search the source, Find better coverage, and Track claims, quotes, and media based on original context.” When it comes to news about Ukraine, he says the emphasis should be on “Stop”; that is, pause before reacting to or sharing what you see.

“There’s a purely human urge to be the first in your group to share the story and be recognized as the one to report it,” he says. While this impulse is a daily danger to journalists, it applies to everyone, especially in moments of information overload.

If you hear news about Ukraine and want to do something to help, disinformation researcher and digital analyst Shireen Mitchell says, “What you need to do is follow people from Ukraine who tell their stories about what happened to them. ”