The recent attack on the U.S. Capitol is a reminder of the potentially deadly impact of disinformation that is spreading online. Experts say there are several possible strategies for dealing with it.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Having a loved one who's convinced of things that just aren't true is frustrating and sometimes dangerous. False information can fuel violence like the attack on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump extremists. In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden called out the role of disinformation in stoking political tensions.

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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war, and we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.

MARTIN: As NPR's Sarah McCammon reports, experts say dispelling manufactured information will take time.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: On January 6, Hilary Izatt was watching TV with her husband when she started to worry.

HILARY IZATT: My husband and I are both political scientists. We're kind of nerdy. We watch C-SPAN a lot. And he - when we were watching C-SPAN is when the rioters started breaking into the Capitol.

MCCAMMON: Izatt is a doctoral student in political science at the University of Michigan. Her dad lives in Utah, and she says he told her he was traveling to Washington, D.C., to join the massive pro-Trump rally planned for that day. When she saw what was unfolding on the screen, it scared her.

IZATT: I was mostly worried for his safety. And I texted him, and he got back to me. And he just said, don't believe everything that you're watching on TV. And that's when it was - like, so I don't believe, like, C-SPAN? Or, you know, I'm not sure what he meant by that. But it - like, it was this realization I think we're coming from two very different realities.

MCCAMMON: I reached out to Izatt's dad to ask for his perspective, and he declined to comment. Izatt's pretty confident her father was not among the group that stormed the Capitol, but she's uncomfortable knowing he was there that day at all. Many people are feeling like they've lost loved ones to an alternate reality. A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that only 1 in 5 Republicans accept Biden's victory.

James Hawdon, director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech, has studied online extremism. He says the widespread acceptance of disinformation is dangerous for the country.

JAMES HAWDON: We act on our beliefs. If you truly believe that the country is under attack, if this, of course, is not true, then, you know, obviously, it poses a threat.

MCCAMMON: Hawdon says people often latch onto pieces of disinformation that align with their worldview and gradually begin to accept even bigger lies.

HAWDON: You can get people to step - take small steps off the path of truth or reality or whatever you want to call it more easily than taking a big leap. But if - once you've gone several yards off that path, then the big leap's pretty easy to make.

MCCAMMON: Those ideas can validate part of a person's belief system or identity, Hawdon says, and they're difficult to shake. Dennis, a retiree from Maryland, asks that we only use his first name for fear of his safety in the current climate. He's grown increasingly worried about his daughter's embrace of false conspiracy theories about the election.

DENNIS: She's talked about the election being stolen. And I push back on that, that - you know, the standard, you know, where's your proof and how do you suppose this happened?

PAULA: I will say that he actually used these terms and said that I was in la-la land. But I really don't feel that I am.

MCCAMMON: That's Dennis's daughter, Paula. She lives near Baltimore and says she's been a conservative all her life. Paula told me she distrusts many elected officials and cannot believe Biden won, despite what many courts and elections officials have repeatedly confirmed and regardless of what her dad says.

PAULA: I was a little bit irritated. But my response is, well, I'm there with 70 million other people then.

MCCAMMON: Hawdon says one long-term solution to this growing problem could involve better education in data literacy, teaching young people how to sort through fact and fiction. In the short term, he says if a loved one is spouting misinformation, it's important to push back kindly and try to understand what led to that belief.

HAWDON: I really don't believe that people started off believing that there are pedophile rings under a pizza place, (laughter) you know? Something got them down that rabbit hole, and you got to understand what that root cause is.

MCCAMMON: Hawdon says just as people often take small steps toward conspiracy theories, they may need to gradually move away from them, too. Hilary Izatt says she's not sure how to talk to her dad, but she anticipates some tough conversations.

IZATT: I think a lot of Americans are being forced to figure out what side they're on, you know? Are you crouching in the Capitol, hiding from rioters? Are you rioting the Capitol? And I think that means it's going to change a little bit, the dynamic with my own family.

MCCAMMON: Amy Bruckman, a professor at Georgia Tech who studies social computing, says personal relationships can help squash conspiracy theories. But also important, she says, our continued cooperation from tech companies in regulating social media and leadership from elected officials.

AMY BRUCKMAN: I think a lot of these crazy ideas are a product of the time. And having national leadership normalize crazy ideas makes people more likely to accept them.

MCCAMMON: It will take time, Bruckman says. But she's hopeful that little by little, Americans will reject disinformation.

Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: online misinformation  online disinformation  disinformation  misinformation