Where to Get More Information

‍My overarching goals of this project are to raise awareness and to inspire you to get involved in the fight against disinformation. To help set the stage, here’s a great quote I recently saw on a NextDoor post.  "Democracies don't die from attack. They die from indifference." I couldn't have said it any better!

‍Our democracy needs fuel to sustain itself, and the quality of that fuel is only as good as the quality of the information we receive. It's as simple as 'Garbage In, Garbage Out". Remember, I'm a systems guy. Trust me on this.

‍Disinformation is a powerful and dangerous fuel. It's designed to be, and there are very powerful corporations, even governments, who want to amplify their messages through falsehoods.

‍If you'd like to help change the game, then read on.

‍Books

There’s no shortage of serious books on disinformation — easily a few hundred, and the number keeps growing. I take this as a positive sign that it’s a topic that’s getting the kind of attention it deserves.

‍What follows are a small handful of books that I have found to be most influential. No worries if you’re short on time. You can find excellent summaries on the internet or your favorite bookseller’s website.

‍"How to Stop a Dictator", by Maria Ressa. Her book is an inside look at how disinformation almost destroyed the democracy of the Philippines, her native country, and how that can happen here is we don’t take proactive measures. She won a Nobel Peace prize.

‍“The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World--And What We Can Do”, by Steven Brill. Mr. Brill is a co-founder of NewsGuard, a firm that tracks disinformation. His book is a powerhouse of inside information on how the power of algorithms is leading to the collapse of shared truth. I’ll be talking more about NewsGuard later in this post.

‍“Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality”, by Renee DiResta. Ms. DiResta’s book examines how rumors, conspiracies, and coordinated narratives are amplified across social media platforms, turning fringe ideas into mainstream beliefs. What stood out most to me was her personal account of investigating the disinformation machine behind vaccine‑safety myths — a revealing look at how organized, persistent, and profitable these campaigns really are.

‍Websites

Here are a few websites that I rely on for timely, reliable, and relevant information.

‍NewsGuard

https://newsguard.com provides a wealth of information and services for businesses and consumers. I subscribe to their Reality Check Newsletter, which provides extremely relevant and timely information into how disinformation spreads and who’s behind it.

I also downloaded their browser extension that rates the reliability of news sources. Here’s a snippet when I did a search of vaccine safety:

Newsguard image of CDC website rating

As shown above, the tool gave the CDC a 100% rating. This doesn’t mean they agree or disagree with the CDC, but it does mean the site scored highly on their evaluation criteria,. The details on their non-partisan rating methodology is completely transparent and fully documented on https://newsguardtech.com.

PolitiFact

 https://politifact.com is a non-partisan fact checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others. If you like what you see, please consider donating.

‍Here’s a snippet from today (6/1/2026). Note that their evaluations apply to both sides of the aisle.

PolitiFact Image of Comments by Politicians

Center for Countering Digital Hate

‍https://counterhate.com is dedicated to protecting people, especially children, from the harms of unregulated social media. I support and donate to their cause.

Here’s a snippet from their homepage (taken on 6/1/2026)

Center for Countering Hate Blog on Killer Apps

Concluding Thoughts

This is just a small sample of where to find reliable information — and where to start pushing back. If you’d like a deeper dive, I devote an entire chapter to this in my book. I hope you’ll join me in this work.

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