100% Digital Leeds is working in partnership with five third-sector organisations on the Connecting and Protecting Communities project, funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). The project will see the coproduction of a toolkit that will provide other organisations with the resources needed to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.
This is the third in a series of blogs documenting the project. The first blog in the series covered the background to the project, and the second blog covered the workshop delivery period. In this blog we share some of the insights gathered during workshop delivery that will form the basis of the Connecting and Protecting Communities Toolkit.
The organisations partnering with 100% Digital Leeds on the project are:
- Afrikindness
- Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours
- Damasq
- Connect in the North
- Leeds Irish Health and Homes
100% Digital Leeds developed the Connecting and Protecting Communities project after hearing from partner organisations that the themes of misinformation and disinformation were a deepening concern for their communities. This is reflected at a national level, as identified by Ofcom.
“Misinformation can spread rapidly online, and distinguishing fact from fiction is increasingly challenging. This is especially important with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, which have the potential to convincingly create false narratives and visuals.”
The Connecting and Protecting Communities project has already helped the five delivery organisations to build knowledge, experience, and tools to support people and communities to develop the transferable skills needed to identify, and be critical of, misinformation and disinformation in all contexts.
Now that the workshop delivery element of the project has finished, 100% Digital Leeds is using these insights to develop a co-produced toolkit that other organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.
“I’ve realised you’ve got to be cautious, I feel less frightened by the internet, and I feel more confident ignoring things on Facebook that may be misinformation and I’ll always ask someone now before I act on something.”
Project participant, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours
Understanding the impact of misinformation and disinformation on learners
In their workshops, organisations shared the definitions of misinformation and disinformation with their learners. Learners reflected on the different ways they have been susceptible to misinformation and disinformation in the past, and the impact and consequences of this.
“Feedback from members reflected a growing awareness of how misinformation impacts emotional wellbeing and community cohesion. Learners acknowledged that prior to the sessions they often accepted online information at face value or shared content without verification and discussions helped them recognise the mental and emotional toll of constant exposure to negative or inflammatory narratives has.”
Anne Pearce, Digital Inclusion officer, Leeds Irish Health and Homes
Personal experiences shared across the organisations throughout the project, highlighted the wider impact of misinformation and disinformation:
- Impact on mental health
- Effect on physical health
- Financial loss
- Discrimination
- Radical views
- Increasing fear of the online world
- Lower trust in institutions
Susceptibility to misinformation and disinformation was seen to be related to:
- The types of sources of information: Information shared from family, friends or trusted people was more likely to be taken at face value, and less likely to be questioned or verified.
- Confidence with identifying AI edited content online: Lack of knowledge and skills to recognise when information or content has been edited or manipulated.
- The quantity of information read and accessed online: People accessing large quantities of information and content at a fast pace (e.g. doom scrolling on social media) meant sometimes information was consumed without knowing the original source and was more likely to be trusted.
- Busy lives and schedules: People juggling lots of commitments with limited time makes them rush when consuming information and they’re less likely to fact check.
- Language barriers: People with English as a second language found it harder to question information as they prioritised translating the information over fact checking.
- Digital skills and confidence: People with low digital skills who are less confident with navigating the online world were more likely to trust information on face value as their focus is more on developing their digital confidence rather than questioning the information they consume.
Codesigning ways to identify and navigate misinformation and disinformation
The Connecting and Protecting Communities project reflects 100% Digital Leeds’s Community Based Approach. The project is delivered in partnership with organisations who have existing trusted relationships with the people and communities they support, so are best placed to understand the needs of their learners and tailor their workshop content and delivery approach accordingly.
This approach is reflective of Ofcom research shared in their latest delivery plan:
“Our experience and insights suggest that media literacy interventions are most effective when they are delivered by trusted voices. In addition to the professionals that an individual already trusts to support them, this could be someone from the same community or with similar life experiences as the learners.”
Each organisation took a different approach to delivering the project, tailoring their delivery content and methods to meet the particular needs of their learners: older people, people with learning disabilities, migrants, and low-income families.
However, there were many common themes and learning points across the workshops that helped organisations make their sessions accessible and inclusive for communities.
Building safe spaces and trusted relationships
Each of the organisations prioritised the atmosphere and environment they delivered their workshops in. Creating spaces that were safe, non-confrontational, and judgement-free allowed learners to share their personal experiences of falling fowl of misinformation and disinformation.
Damasq incorporated icebreaker activities into the start of their sessions to build relationships between learners, allowing people to feel confident in sharing their thoughts and experiences. Damasq’s tutor delivered their sessions in Arabic, their learners’ first language. This increased engagement by ensuring learners could easily understand the examples shared, and feed into discussion.
“There are big challenges with a language barrier around trusting information – it’s hard to trust information if you can’t understand the information, sometimes people are too trusting as the focus is more on translating the information rather than questioning the legitimacy of the information. Delivering the sessions in both Arabic and English has meant people have been able to increase their skills and confidence with misinformation and disinformation without language being a barrier and developed ESOL skills alongside this.”
Abeer, Course Tutor, Damasq
Connect in the North and Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours facilitated small group activities in their workshops. This supported learners to build relationships, encouraging peer-support opportunities, and the sharing of learners’ experiences of encountering misinformation and disinformation. Encouraging learners to share examples of where they had personally experienced scam emails and disinformation shared on social media increased learner engagement and understanding.
Afrikindness and Leeds Irish Health and Homes supported their members to share their own experiences by working together to complete group quizzes and navigating information together in pairs. This increased confidence, empathy and created judgment-free, environment with learners recognising ‘it could happen to any of us’.
“I have learnt so much, I feel more empowered, peaceful and calm about the theme of misinformation and disinformation, to take my time and slow down to check something before I act, it’s been a lovely atmosphere with no judgement, kindness and made friends so we can all be better parents together and help each other.”
Learner, Afrikindness
Developing practical approaches to taking the ‘FIRST’ approach
Organisations used the FIRST approach to support their learners to stop, question and fact check information, building skills to critically evaluate information on their own terms:
F – Fake – Could this be false, misleading, or edited?
I – Identity – Who is this from? Can I check this?
R – Reaction – Does it make me angry, emotional, or sad?
S – Source – Where is this information from?
T – Timing – Is this current or old news?
Organisations practically approached this by teaching learners how to:
- Verify information for sharing it: Checking multiple, trusted and reputable sources of news before passing on information as fact.
- Investigate the source of information: Checking for author credentials, website credibility, date of publication. Organisations shared the Get Safe Online website, the UK’s leading internet safety website with tools such as Ask Silver which can instantly check a communication and indicate whether it is safe or a ‘Red Flag’, and the Check a Website tool which helps people determine whether a website is likely to be legitimate or a scam.
- Use Google reverse image search: Google’s reverse image search function can help to verify images and videos by identifying the original source, and ensuring images are not taken out of context, or fabricated or manipulated content such as AI deepfake videos.
- Avoid the spread of misinformation: Stopping and thinking before they share information, as continuing the spread of misinformation can increase belief in the information and cause consequences. Reporting scam emails and texts to the National Cyber Security Centre.
Taking a ‘hands on’ approach to supporting improved digital skills and confidence
Organisations identified learners to take part in the Connecting and Protecting Communities project who had low digital skills and confidence, and who were less likely to be aware of the issues and negative impact associated with misinformation and disinformation, online safety, and the other risks that come with being online. Building opportunities to develop learners’ digital skills and confidence into the sessions was significant in supporting the media literacy of learners.
Project funding allowed organisations to gift learners with digital equipment and connectivity, allowing learner to get online outside of the workshops and continue their learning.
Providing laptops and tablets for use in the workshops gave learners the opportunity to develop hands-on experience in navigating online information. Organisations sent example scam emails to learners’ smartphones to demonstrate the kind of email they could receive, helping them to develop the digital skills and critical skills to look for the ‘red flags’ that might determine whether an email is a scam. Learners were taught how to open emails on their smartphone, how to identify the sender, how to delete the email and how to report it to the National Cyber Security Centre.
Exploring misinformation and disinformation through a lens that resonates with learners
Each of the five organisations explored misinformation using different examples and case studies that reflected the personal experiences of their learners, helping to ensure the workshop content was immediately relevant and engaging.
Minority beliefs and cultural barriers
Damasq and Afrikindness shared examples of closed Facebook groups aimed at migrants, that some learners had previously been exposed to, which included many examples of misinformation and disinformation. Examples included incidents of Islamophobia designed to instil fear in migrant communities, and misinformation about Home Office regulations.
Culture and barriers appeared to make it harder for people to challenge information. Learners’ cultural beliefs of trusting admired and inspirational people by default meant they were more likely to believe information when it appeared to be from authoritative sources.
“It is hard to challenge information or sources sometimes, we come from a different country, things are different back in Africa, we need to adapt and adjust to broaden our thinking and upskill ourselves, so we are more confident to identify misinformation and disinformation.”
Learner, Afrikindness
Building confidence with questioning information was key to people developing the skills to not fall victim to trusting disinformation. Damasq shared two tools, ‘the pause phrase’ and the ‘the three question confidence check’ to support with building confidence and avoiding being susceptible to trusting misinformation and disinformation online.
The pause phrase – phrases you can use:
- “Let me check this later.”
- “I’m not sure if this is true.”
- “I don’t need to share this now.”
- Practice saying them out loud
The three question confidence check – before believing or sharing, ask:
- How does this make me feel? (angry, scared, rushed?)
- Who benefits if I believe this?
- What happens if I do nothing?
Misinformation and disinformation in health
Health was a common theme in workshops across the organisations, with many people sharing personal experiences of believing misinformation and disinformation related to vaccine hesitancy, ‘miracle remedies’, medication advice, and information about their long-term conditions.
“I saw an article in a magazine saying that certain medications that I was taking cause health problems, it made me think about stopping my medication, but I learnt in our sessions to check the NHS website before believing everything I read.”
Learner, Leeds Irish Health and Homes
Organisations included opportunities to develop confidence in navigating trusted sources such as the NHS website and the NHS app in their workshops, supporting learners to understand where to find accurate information about their health and wellbeing, and how to confidently fact check.
“I don’t actually know why I chose to not have the two Flu vaccines, because I can’t remember where I read something about it or heard something bad about having two, but I did and it made me not have the second one.”
Learner, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours
Recognising and avoiding scams
Across the board learners shared personal experiences of having been scammed in the past. Many felt that, prior to the workshops, they didn’t have the skills to identify whether an email or message was a scam.
Afrikindness found that many of their learners had seen scams relating to Asda vouchers shared through WhatsApp groups and online. To many, the ‘vouchers’ appeared legitimate, and some learners had been scammed in this way in the past. Afrikindess used this scam as an example in an ‘identifying the red flags’ exercise to build learners’ skills and confidence in looking for signs of when something is a scam, reinforcing the message that “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.
“As parents we have no control over what information and content is out there on social media and online, but we can adapt to stop, pause and check to verify something and teach our children to do the same.”
Bunmi, CEO, Afrikindness
Leeds Irish Health and Homes and Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours developed workbooks and worksheets that gave top tips for identifying a scam or phishing email, using real life examples. Many of their learners who are over 65 had felt anxious and nervous about receiving scam emails and texts, especially those that appeared to be from their bank. The organisations encouraged people to check their bank’s website for information on the texts and emails they’re likely to send, and to make note of the numbers or email addresses any messages would be sent from.
Damasq found many of their learners had been made aware of charity donation scams, fake charities and WhatsApp impersonation. They facilitated group activities using real life examples of scam texts and legitimate texts from the NHS and other trusted organisations, pointing out the differences. They focussed on increasing confidence in translating the messages first, before supporting people to identify whether they were from legitimate sources. Learners expressed that part of their culture was to not question messages appearing to be from trusted institutions, as this can appear rude. This has meant people have developed a tendency of trusting everything before being critical.
“Good people don’t question or challenge anything from sources that look like authorities or social media groups we go to for information, we would always trust authorities. We are learning the skills on this course and it’s a balance between not wanting to lose our culture and adapting to this new way of life to stay safe.”
Learner, Damasq
Connect in the North shared that many of their learners had experienced romance scams. These include ‘catfishing’ on dating sites, and online impersonation scams, which involve the creation a fake social account or profile to mimic another person, organisation, or entity. Connect in the North used interactive quizzes and games to demonstrate top tips for avoiding scams. They also facilitated small group discussions around the benefits of not acting immediately when receiving an email or message, encouraging people to check with someone trusted, such as their support worker, before acting.
Identifying fabricated and manipulated online content
AI and its role in fake news was a common area of concern across the organisations and workshops. Many learners shared that they lacked confidence in being able to identify whether information or content was fabricated or manipulated using AI.
Organisations shared examples of:
Influencer culture: “Because I’ve seen everyone sharing it or seen it in a few places or quite a few times, I’m assuming it must be true.”
Click bait and social media algorithms: “The more you click and engage, the more you see of that sort of content that could be misinformation and disinformation.”
Deepfake Videos: “Just because it’s information shared from someone you trust and admire, such as famous people, politicians and inspirational speakers, it doesn’t mean it is accurate or true.”
Connect in the North created a list of key questions for learners to ask themselves to help in identifying if content is AI generated, fabricated, manipulated, click-bait or trying to make you act urgently:
- Does it make you feel scared?
- What’s the date?
- Are they trying to sell you something?
- What’s the evidence for it?
- Is it AI? Are there any defects in the photo/video?
- If in doubt, use trusted information and talk to someone.
“We know many people we’re working with that have a learning difficulty are very scared of being scammed. This can often be down to friends and family scaremongering. Our learners have really appreciated us supporting them to build confidence and awareness of how to identify a scam and stay safe online, so it doesn’t stop them from doing the things they want to do online.”
Sarah Wheatley, Learning and Development Manager, Connect in the North
Outcomes and impact to date
For learners
After the Connecting and Protecting Communities workshop series all learners expressed feeling more confident in spotting and avoiding misinformation and disinformation and felt better equipped to stay safe online.
Learners from across the five organisations delivering Connecting and Protecting Communities workshops highlighted the following outcomes:
- Increased awareness of misinformation and disinformation.
- Increased confidence of their ability to be critical of whether information is accurate.
- Increased awareness of fact-checker websites, and other useful tools.
- Improved knowledge of the tools to identify misinformation and disinformation.
- Improved ability to recognise and avoid the risks of being online.
- Reduced anxiety and worry when accessing information online and receiving messages and emails.
- Increased understanding and awareness of trusted information sources.
- Reduced likelihood of inadvertently spreading misinformation and disinformation by sharing information without checking its accuracy.
Learners shared the impact of the above:
“I will be more confident to question something and ask for information to be translated so I can make the right decisions, rather than agreeing to things because I don’t understand.”
Learner, Damasq
“I think I’ve been hacked quite a lot, so I always change my password. I now feel more confident to look for the red flags and not act on something straight away, I will check with someone else before I believe something is true.”
Learner, Connect in the North
“My nerves would go when I read things online and when I got emails that made me feel anxious, I now know these have been scam emails, and I stop, think and check the sender and don’t click the links and I feel less flustered and anxious.”
Learner, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours
“I’ve learnt that if a scam text or misinformation comes to me online or through a message, I can break the chain of sharing by not passing it on if I am not 100% sure it is true. I will now pause and fact check before I share.”
Learner, Afrikindness
For organisations
The five delivery partners report that they have developed new skills themselves and now have greater access to a wide range of resources to continue supporting people with misinformation and disinformation. Many of the organisations have seen huge demand from their wider service user groups for further support around this theme, and around developing digital skills and confidence more generally, so are seeking further funding opportunities to support this work to continue.
Feedback from the organisations included:
“Partnering on this project strengthened our ability to combine grassroots community trust with specialist digital expertise, ensuring the programme was both practical and meaningful for the families we serve.”
“Co-producing the resources with other organisations and sharing information knowledge tips and tricks is invaluable. The knowledge, support and advice from 100% Digital Leeds are absolutely second to none.”
“Having the time to dedicate to this project has given us the chance to really examine this area in detail and decide on the best way to tackle this vast topic in a way that suits our learners.”
Quotes from staff across the organisations delivering the project
Next steps
Now the workshop delivery period of the project has finished, 100% Digital Leeds are using the insights gathered to develop the Connecting and Protecting Communities toolkit. This will be a co-produced bank of resources that organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.
The resources will include session plans, case studies and examples of misinformation and disinformation that will resonate with a wide range of organisations and their learners. They will set out different approaches to embedding these discussions within existing services and digital inclusion interventions. The resources will enable other organisations to deliver meaningful digital inclusion interventions on the theme of misinformation and disinformation. The toolkit will be published in early Summer 2026, on the Digital Inclusion Toolkit.