Information is the weapon in the media war in a polarized world.
False information and fake news are flooding social networks. How can you keep track of that? With the right toolbox! This was already the case during the refugee wave in 2015, became a real problem during the corona pandemic and now the Russian president is massively using disinformation as a tactical tool in his military attack on Ukraine.
An important goal is to create a credible justification story for this war. The access of people in Russia and Ukraine, but also worldwide, to transparent and correct information can literally be the decisive factor in the war. The mass of fake news has now reached such a level that even the fact-checking portals can hardly keep up with the serious checks. Even though everyone is doing their best right now to provide orientation in this information tsunami through high-quality analysis.

Good craftsmanship requires good tools

It's good to have tools to be able to check for yourself whether information that has flown into the news feed is actually valid or is just an attempt to spread false information and cause confusion.
A very good place to start is Firstdraft.org. This alliance of nine organizations, all of which are committed to protecting democracy ( HERE ), has set itself the task of using know-how and appropriate tools to make people resistant to harmful, false and misleading information.

“We work to empower people with knowledge and tools to build
resilience against harmful, false, and misleading information.”
FirstDraftNews

One result of this work is a toolbox of testing and information tools for all types of digital media that is second to none. We are therefore happy to introduce it here and strongly recommend its use if the information you are looking for has not already been checked by a fact checker like MIMIKAMA.

Note: Unfortunately the original source deleted.

In addition to the English-language content, FirstDraft has set up a resource page in German ( HERE ). There you can also find the link to the TOOLKIT in its basic version ( HERE ). In the purple box at the bottom left of the page there is a link to an advanced version “Advanced Toolkit” ( HERE ).

How can this information dashboard be used?

The basic version includes various categories of verification tools, information and other resources that help collect, verify and share information responsibly. The advanced version ( HERE ) also offers very helpful applications for the more experienced user.
Behind each link there is a brief description of its function. Simply hover over it with the mouse and a comment window will appear with a short explanation.

The First Draft Social Links Tracker presents an Excel solution to keep track of social network posts that need to be checked.
Anyone who wants to stay up to date on new tools, trends and resources is referred to the Training department ( HERE ). There is some very good help here.

All in all, a very powerful toolbox that clearly summarizes many well-known and lesser-known tools to safely navigate through the information tsunami. The FirstDraft organization also expressly wants these tools to be widely used ( HERE).
We are happy to do you this favor. And we call for this toolbox to be further disseminated and also explicitly made available to the people in Ukraine and Russia. They currently need access to clear information in order to understand what is happening and to be able to react appropriately. Without the filtered and distorted information of the Russian regime.

Language barrier? No! Translation tool 😉

Unfortunately, the toolbox is only available in English.
Since not everyone knows English and a lot of information is currently encoded not only in a foreign language but also in Cyrillic characters, here are a few tips on how you can still benefit from the information and make it accessible to yourself. Regardless of which language you speak. A very good free AI-based online translator is the Cologne tool Deepl ( HERE ). This platform supports 26 languages ​​in very good quality, including Russian! For free.

Entire websites can also be translated quite easily, for some devices directly via Google Translate. Instructions on how to use the powerful Google Translator can be found here . It's worth looking through the browser plugins too. For example, the IMTranslator translation plugin can be installed in the Firefox browser, which also translates, among other things, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian using the right-click context menu.

Conclusion

Trustworthy, verified, well-researched information has never been more important than it is today.
In the current flood of disinformation, it is becoming increasingly dangerous to blindly trust information from the Internet. The toolbox (Basic Kit, Advanced Kit) from FirstDraft.org is a very good tool for checking information independently if it has not yet been analyzed and published by fact-checking portals such as MIMIKAMA. The language barrier can be overcome using appropriate translation tools such as online translators and browser plugins.
This toolbox should be widely distributed in order to counteract any disinformation.


Related to the topic: Disinformation as a war tactic – how we protect ourselves from fake news


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )