How to react to misinformation online

How should we react if we come across something online that upsets us or makes us angry? And what if we see something that seems exaggerated or inaccurate?

Verified has collaborated with wikiHow – a community website that provides accurate ‘how to’ guides – to share practical advice on what we can do when we see upsetting or false information online.

“Ask yourself, where is this information coming from?”

In the video featuring wikiHow experts, Chris Hedley and Elizabeth Douglas, we demonstrate how to check if the information you’re seeing is reliable.

We also asked for their expert tips to make sure you don’t spread misinformation.

Those tips included:

• Pause before you share or reply, to give yourself time to analyse what you’ve seen
• Fact-check the information by looking at the source, the author and the date of publication
• Let others know if posts or articles contain misinformation so everyone can access the facts

These articles have helpful advice on how to reply, when not to reply and how to edit our feeds to help make sure we are seeing more accurate information.

Misinformation can spread faster than reliable information, so make sure you know what to do when you see false or upsetting information online.