A Rhode Island educator is speaking out about a DHS-funded program that purportedly promotes the teaching of media literacy and combating disinformation she claims is meant to "indoctrinate children." Ramona Bessinger, a high school teacher in Providence, R.I., authored a piece for Legal Insurrection on Monday recalling the training she and other educators participated in last fall, blowing the whistle she says on an initiative from the University of Rhode Island's Media Education Lab called Courageous RI.

Warnings about NameDrop, a feature on Apple’s iOS 17 that allows users to share contact information, have spread like an annoying chain letter across police department Facebook pages over the past few days. These warnings were misleading, but social media posts about online threats to kids don’t have to be true to get views.

In late November 2023, Facebook users shared variations of a viral warning about a relatively new iPhone feature called NameDrop, also known as "Bringing Devices Together." The posts hinted that NameDrop, dubbed by Apple as "a new AirDrop experience," was dangerous, and said that users needed to take action to protect their privacy and security.

Multiple U.S. police department Facebook pages also shared the warnings, which perhaps was one of the reasons that we received so many reader emails about this rumor.

The Viral Warnings on Facebook

Dear America,

We are in trouble. Our society is fractured. Our kids have been lied to. We’re in a serious downward spiral that we have to work to quickly reverse.

It’s not hard to find a small minority of people to agree with any ridiculous proposition but it was still shocking to discover that thousands of TikTok users were sharing, and celebrating, a document purporting to be Usama bin Laden’s letter to America.

Videos of young, and not so young, people discovering the letter that the terrorist wrote to America in the months after the 9/11 attacks were viewed…

The term “psychedelic” was coined by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond: “To fathom Hell or go angelic / Just take a pinch of psychedelic.” But today’s public messaging around psychedelics has a dangerous tendency to gloss over the “fathoming hell” part, which has been euphemized into the language of a “bad” or “challenging” trip.

In late October 2023, a number of viral online posts and articles claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had died on Oct. 26, 2023, and a coup was underway in Moscow.

The rumors reportedly spread after a Telegram channel called General SVR claimed Putin had gone into cardiac arrest on Oct. 22, 2023. Other reports claimed Putin had been using a body double since.

“According to an eyewitness account.” “Israeli officials said in a statement.” “Reportedly.” “Said a student on the condition of anonymity.” “Per Palestinian officials.” “Some experts say.”

For journalists, attributions like these are a crucial tool intended to provide clarity and context. They demonstrate where an idea came from, and whether it might contain bias. Often, they indicate — but do not say directly — that the information has not been independently verified.