How charities can tackle misinformation

Misinformation and disinformation often spread through social media. It includes inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths.

Charities rely on public trust and accurate information to carry out our work effectively. Ensuring the accuracy of the information we share, and countering misinformation, is crucial.

Misinformation can cause significant harm. It can spread fear and create hate, damage reputations, mislead donors and undermine our efforts. Maintaining trust is essential for the success and credibility of charities, and spreading misinformation can damage public trust and confidence, not only in our charity but in charities overall.

Understanding how misinformation spreads and the steps we can take to mitigate its effects is vital. Here are some tips charities can use to tackle this issue:

Always check the source of the information and confirm its accuracy before sharing it with your audience.

• Use fact-checking tools: Use reliable fact-checking websites and tools to verify information. Full fact is an independent charity that check claims made by politicians, public institutions and journalists, as well as viral content online. Take a look at the resources on the Full fact website.
• Cross-reference sources: Cross-reference information with multiple reputable sources to ensure accuracy and consistency. Always consider the credibility of the source and the evidence supporting the information. Visit the transparency tool launched by the BBC.

Ensure your team uses reputable sources and knows how to handle misinformation effectively.

• Maintain a list of trusted sources: Keep an internal list of reputable news outlets, government websites and expert organisations that your team can refer to. StrawberrySocial has put together a list of trusted online safety sources.
• Conduct training sessions: Provide regular training for staff and volunteers on recognising and dealing with misinformation, including spotting fake and altered images and videos. Staying on top of the latest technology developments is key to keeping up with new types of misinformation. Media Trust provides media and digital skills training for charities.
• Share guidelines: Share best practice guidelines with your team on how to verify information and respond to misinformation, which will help promote media literacy. Use Full Fact’s practical toolkit to identify bad information.

Address false information quickly to prevent it from spreading further. Provide clear and accurate information to correct the record.

• Monitor your channels: Regularly monitor your social media channels, website and other platforms for any signs of misinformation. You can use monitoring tools to track mentions and identify misinformation early.
• Delete, hide or correct: When misinformation is identified, it can be difficult to decide if you should respond with accurate information – as this can highlight the misinformation to more people. Assess the reach of the misinformation. If it's small scale, then you could ignore it, or depending on the channel, delete, mute or hide. If it's a larger issue, then quickly issue corrections and provide accurate information through your communication channels. Transparency and a swift response can help maintain trust.
• Plan for misinformation: Some charities face reoccurring challenges about the same issues. Develop a key lines bank of your policy positions, so you can consistently and regularly share one version of the truth.

Reporting fake content can stop the spread of harm. There are guidelines on social media platforms about how to do this.

• Report to social media platforms: Follow the reporting guidelines of social media platforms to flag and remove misleading or fake content. This helps prevent the spread of harmful misinformation. Reporting mechanisms can vary by platform, so it's important to be familiar with each one. Here are links to report content on some of the main social media websites:
  • Reporting content on X (formerly Twitter):
  • Reporting content on Instagram
  • Reporting content on Facebook
• Challenge misinformation: If you come across suspicious information, you may want to challenge its authenticity by asking for the source. Beware that if you do this by sharing it, you're still spreading it. If you share content that you later learn is false, quickly inform your audience and correct the misinformation. Accountability and transparency are key when correcting false information.

If misinformation significantly impacts your charity, it may be necessary to report it as a serious incident to the Charity Commission (CC).

• Understand reporting requirements: Familiarise yourself with the reporting requirements for serious incidents to ensure compliance. It’s important to be thorough in documenting the impact and actions taken. Read the Charity Commission guidance on how to report a serious incident.
• Prepare a response plan: Have a plan in place for handling serious misinformation incidents. This should include who is responsible for reporting and the steps to mitigate the impact. It’s important to stay ahead of new updates, so build in regular reviews and updates to the response plan to address new threats.

If we use the right tools and processes, together we can rally against misinformation and make sure we stand alongside the communities we support who are affected by these harms. By doing this we send a strong message of allyship that represents our value as a sector.

Watch our YouTube video below where our Executive Director offers advice on how to communicate online without feeding into misinformation