By Clint Harris

All of the misinformation and disinformation circulating on Facebook and Twitter is exhausting and even anger provoking. What can you do to counter the staggering volume of unfair and unjust commentary making absolutely everything a lie-fueled political hammer? 

Perhaps you have tried to counter the fierce half-truths and not-an-ounce-of-truth bombardments. Have you thought “if only I could be a Social Media Superhero Warrior then I could crush all this hostile misinformation!” This article can help!

Let us start at the conclusion: you can be a Social Media Warrior Superhero. However, that role does not look and act how you probably think it does. The following is a compilation of articles from NPR, the Atlantic, and from engagement training by the DNC. 

• First, keep yourself protected. Following elections is generally stressful; that stress has been amplified in recent years as people, bots, biased sources, and even mainstream news push out provocative headlines, divisive statements, and sometimes threats of violence. Avoid heated conversation threads with strangers. Disengage when it starts to become personal. Report abuse and threats of violence to the platform. You should report threats of violence to the FBI when you are the target of an online threat of life, national security, or an ongoing crime and you are in immediate physical danger. Call +1-800-CALL FBI (or +1-800-225-5324) or submit a tip via www.fbi.gov/tips.

Watch out for your mental health. A poll released this May by the American Psychiatric Association found that 73% of respondents felt anxious about the upcoming presidential election. That may be higher today. Brett Ford, associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who has been studying the link between politics and mental health since 2016, says “we find that the more people focus on getting rid of these negative emotions, the less politically engaged they are . . .  So that the answer is not necessarily to focus on getting rid of our negative emotions . . . Any situation has multiple facets and we can focus on the facets that can change. We can focus on the facets that allow us to connect with our communities that give us opportunities to feel compassion or inspiration, admiration.”

• Second, your greatest opportunity to influence people is with people who know you and have a good relationship with you. Focusing on your connections will leverage your effectiveness the most. Certainly, your own social media sites are the strongest places to start. Other places to consider addressing political disinformation or possibly asserting your views are in your social media communities or family pages and personal interest groups (such as book clubs).

Choose the platforms where you are established and are most comfortable. If you want to expand your influence, Facebook is the most common platform and your opportunity to reach the most people. Twitter has the advantages of fast reach, for retweeting, and for linking. It is good for “hot takes and news.” YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are among the top 5 with Facebook and offer strong platforms for visual content with stories.

• Third, always be confident, informative, and trustworthy. While some comments may appear (or even be) absurd, keep a friendly “voice” and a SFW (Suitable for Work) vocabulary. Vetted reposting, retweeting, etc. is an economical way of sharing content and keeping your friends and followers informed.

When you encounter disagreement, it is more effective to answer in a kind way. Try to think from the viewpoint of the person who made the statement and know that about 40% of Americans actively avoid the news, according to a Reuters Institute Study in 2022. Misinformation and disinformation (purposefully lying) is rampant. Even broadcast media Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million to avert a trial in the voting machine company’s lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Avoid confrontational arguments and focus on building trust. Use the ABC method: Acknowledge the underlying concern. Bridge with a simple and gentle phrase that undermines the misinformation. Then provide Content messaging that shifts the conversation toward the truth.

Of course you may also encounter trolls. Know that hiding the troll statement is only to you and your friends. The troll statement will still be visible to him/her/them and his/her/their friends. Delete the comments when they are uncivil. Reserve Bans/Blocks only for the worst of the trolls and all likely bots. You will know who.

• Pro Tips: leverage how your platform works. On Facebook, for example, negative and positive responses combine to move a post or comment up to the top. Often the best response is no response. Liking your own post later in the day will give it a bump in the news feed, but liking every time looks desperate. If someone engages positively with your account, you can always do the same in return. Actively like/follow candidates you support regardless if they are ones in your state/district.  

Use multimedia, such as photos, graphs, videos, and live broadcasts on Facebook to engage your audience. Videos and pictures are the most powerful across most platforms. Use them and credit other pages/accounts wherever possible.

Vary your content and make it interesting and relatable to you and your friends. Post/tweet timely content that people have opinions about.

Ask questions in your posts. As one example, you could ask which issues your followers/friends are most concerned about in your community. Encourage engagement by replying to people’s comments.

Encourage people to tag their friends in the comments. 

Be shareable. Facebook is more likely to move up posts in news feeds from people’s friends than from pages.

Use hashtags to join trending conversations. Be careful to check a hashtag before using it even if you think you know what it is! Limit them to a maximum of 2-3 per post.

DO NOT USE ALL CAPS OTHER THAN FOR A COUPLE WORDS, OTHERWISE IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING!

• Certainly, our focus is on the election now. It is beyond extremely important and each and every voter is valued! You want to encourage and offer (find) help for like minded  people to make their voices heard in ways that form our government. We must win the BIG one and win in BIG numbers for the smaller ones. Know that the election results are not the end of our work. If recent history and current events give us prolog, there probably will be another Red Mirage as we saw in 2020 followed by incendiary rhetoric, legal battles, and possibly more violence. The last one is still with us today and the next one will likely be with us for some time as well. 

There is no doubt that healing will require work and patience. Peace will require justice. All will take time. Be prepared.

In conclusion, please consider becoming a Social Warrior Superhero- a joyful warrior. Be the warrior who values being considerate and trustworthy as well as being effective. We are in this together and for a long time. Remember also that hard work is good work when the goals are virtuous. Let us do this together. I’ll see you on The Net!