From politics to COVID-19, we have a big problem with false information on the internet. There’s been a lot of discussion about what platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can do to stop it from spreading, or if the government should step in to regulate those spaces. But there’s been less focus on the skills users need to sort through it all — skills that aren’t necessarily taught, at least in a formal way, in the U.S. education system.
Helen Lee Bouygues is trying to change that. She’s the founder and president of the Reboot Foundation, which teaches critical thinking skills to combat fake news. She said we’re just not inclined to second-guess information when it’s flooding our social media feeds. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.
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