SIFT is an updated approach to understanding online information, with actions you can take to reveal the difference between misinformation and the real thing.
STOP: We all take in information on auto-pilot. Stopping to think about the information you come across is the necessary first step in being able to SIFT what you find.
INVESTIGATE the source: Look into the people and organizations responsible for information, using user profiles and Wikipedia.
FIND better coverage: Do a general news search for your topic, so you can look at the conversation as a whole and figure out if what you’re seeing is an outlier.
TRACE to the source:First check the date, then identify if your information comes from an original source that’s different from where you found it. Does the description match what the original actually says?
To walk through the process, visit Mike Caulfield's Infodemic blog.