Watching out for the fakes: How to spot online disinformation

This article outlines why online disinformation is widespread and how to detect it, describing tactics such as bot amplification, troll factories, deepfakes, fake news sites, and impersonation across social media, forums, and multimedia platforms; it categorizes common vectors (articles, social posts, forums/comments, videos/images) and provides practical steps—pause and think, verify with credible sources and fact-checkers, consider context, and avoid provocation—while recommending CISA’s disinformation tactics brochure for further guidance.