Media literacy is an ambiguous thing. It can have many meanings to many different people of different backgrounds and many different purposes. This is both a strength and weakness. In one positive, we can use media literacy as an umbrella term for many things; digital literacy, information literacy, news literacy and so on, but on a negative side it makes it very hard to communicate to people and really address the difficulties in making a media literate society.

There is a growing awareness of the need for media literacy, it is a building block in creating a more democratic, educated, informed, independent and resilient society and yet it has only really come to the fore in the last decade. Now we see the growth of initiatives and focus from the European Institutions in particular recognises its need in fighting the disinformation phenomena which is seen as a strategic attack on democracy and the values of the EU. Civil society is also crucial here. Taking on the ground work while the European Commission tries to shape some all-encompassing policy that can be implemented for all 28 Member States.

What we are seeing is the growth of conversation and debate, which is crucial in spreading the word, enabling partnerships, and involving stakeholders of all areas. But what we need to recognise is that this debate and conversation usually only takes place on higher levels and amongst those who usually already have a pre-existing interest in the subject. The difficulty is reaching your normal every day citizen, and in this situation, it cannot be through a policy or political discussion. It must be in a relatable, practical and useful way. For any person who is working a normal 9-5, has a family and a million other things to do, how do you make media literacy an everyday norm in the fight against fake news?

This is the big question for any policy maker, but is it the question for the big social media platforms?

Arguably, the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the main enablers for disinformation and fake news and therefore should be at the forefront of the promotion of media literacy.

However, what are these platforms actually doing? What media literacy tools are they putting in place for the every-day user? And how are they communicating this? Let’s find out.

What has Twitter introduced?

• The NGO Handbook: This details all the ways in which NGO’s can use Twitter to communicate and engage with civil society.
• An Advanced Privacy Dashboard: Here you can find information about how take control of security, privacy, abuse, harmful content and fake accounts.
• Twitter Sparkle: The options to switch between two algorithms changing the content users see on their feeds. Sometimes you will see content from people you don’t follow, this allows you to take control of what you see! Note: the sparkly icon that you click on seems to only show up on mobile devices.
• The Ads Transparency Centre: This allows you to see more details behind an advertisement! This can include the organisation funding the ad campaign and targeted demographics.
• Quality Filter: When you turn on the quality filter it will filter our lower quality content from your feeds. For example it will filter out content that seems to be automated.

And what is Facebook doing?

• Digital Literacy Library: This tool offers lesson plans designed by experts for young people, helping then to analyze the digital world and critically consume content.
• Think Before You Share: This initiative asks people to stop and think first before freely sharing content online. It offers tips and guidelines on what can go wrong and how to avoid it!
• Parents Portal: This is a platform for parents where they can find answers to their questions. It also contains tips to help then navigate the platform.
• Youth Portal: This portal provides a guide with the aim for empowering youth and helping them through privacy and safety information.
• Facebook Journalism Project: Through working with news organisations, the aim is to develop products, tools and training for journalists around the world.
• Safety Centre: Here you can find all the tools and resources that give users control!
• Access my Information: This allows users to download a copy of their information accessible on the platform. This will show you what is visible to the world!
• Used Applications: Here you can see what influences the ads you see and lets you take control.
• News Integrity Initiative: This was partly funded by Facebook following their Journalism Projects and the aim is to help citizens incorporate critical thinking when consuming news they read online.

These are just some of the tools that I could find on their sites that help the user to take control over their content and profiles. While it may appear that this is quite impressive, we must consider the vastness of the problem. EU officials have made their feelings clear and one new initiative on their behalf was to introduce the Code of Practice to encourage bodies like Facebook and Twitter to do more to tackle disinformation and promote transparency. They have been criticized for not doing enough and not providing enough information in their reports surrounding the measures they are taking and their results and impact.

What also may be missing is enough communication of these tools to the users. Through my own experience, it took the best part of my day to uncover where I could find this information! In one particular example, I have been told (by someone working at Twitter) of a guide for educators that they have released, however, I cannot find this and challenge someone else to give it a go!

So, while policy makers and the platforms battle it out on a higher level, we must take advantage of the tools that we DO have for now! While it may be not be groundbreaking, we can to an extent control our experiences online.

However, it’s important to remember, tools are just one aspect, it is our mindset that we must shape. No tool will instill the critical skill of awareness and this is our greatest assets in the fight against disinformation.

Other useful links for users:

Junk News Aggregator: a tool from the Oxford Internet Institute, this database tracks the distribution of junk news on Facebook! It highlights misleading, or deceptive information masking itself as real news!

AlgoTransparency: This tool shows users what information the YouTube algorithm is targeting them with. These show in the ‘’Up Next’’ list.

NewsGuard: Using trained journalists and editors, this tool reviews the credibility of news sources! It will publish its rating of a particular site and detail why it is of high quality…or not!

Get Bad News: This is a game moreso than a tool, but it allows users to take on the role of a fake news producer! Your task is to gain as much followers as possible by building the ‘credibility’ of your fake news site. This is a great tool to highlight the tricks online.