I think what I find so frustrating about the Fatima/Cyber ad thing is that it shows just how much we actually -want- to be outraged, and just how susceptible to misinformation that makes us. (1/5)

The logo for the campaign, Cyber First, is right there in the ad. It'd take maybe 30 seconds of googling to check out their website, and see it's a cyber-security skills programme that's been running for while.

But there's no incentive for us to take those 30 seconds. (2/5)

We see the outraged tweets and don't view them as imparting info, but as an invitation to say "I love the arts! and I hate the government! I'm outraged too."

We don't verify, I think because there's no verification needed for that sentiment. (3/5)

This was an example where the verifiability was right there in the content, there was no deliberate attempt at misinfo, and there were plausible alternative explanations. (4/5)

What about when the truth is harder to discern, when it's been deliberately crafted to mislead, when there are specific named individuals we care about or support who are being supposedly attacked?

We're so screwed. (5/5)