We need to be more aware of whether and when our own posts are feeding narratives being pushed by adversaries and malign actors, what that means, and what we should do about it.

You’ve probably seen messages that claim to provide evidence that busloads of “out of state” looters, rioters, and members of antifa are coming to burn down your town or city. They are bullsh*t. They are a psychological operation being run against Americans. And we should all understand how dangerous they are.

Lesson 4: Why conspiracy theories work. As complex conspiracy narratives like QAnon gain popularity, we too often dismiss their importance and broad appeal — and misunderstand why they resonate. Rather than evaluate them through the “true or not” perspective, it is important to understand that conspiracy theories have structural, motivational, and permission-granting characteristics that explain how they work so effectively.

We are all prone to believing that disinformation is something that works on someone else, not on us. But the truth is, it works on all of us.

Lesson 3: “News aggregator” accounts and personalities play a role in sculpting information environments and building networks on social media — and sometimes also in promoting disinformation and coercive narratives.