Reboot in the News

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, several large tech companies are still making money from widely-debunked conspiracy theory content about the terror attack that is distressing to survivors and families of the victims.

YouTube, Google, and Apple are all still allowing users to rent or purchase conspiracy theory films on their platforms despite warnings from government officials, experts, and survivors that it hinders proper education about what happened.

Such conspiracy theories are exacerbated by social media and the internet, said Helen Lee Bouygues, a misinformation expert and founder of the Reboot Foundation.

From politics to COVID-19, we have a big problem with false information on the internet. There’s been a lot of discussion about what platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can do to stop it from spreading, or if the government should step in to regulate those spaces. But there’s been less focus on the skills users need to sort through it all — skills that aren’t necessarily taught, at least in a formal way, in the U.S. education system.

Helen Lee Bouygues is trying to change that. She’s the founder and president of the Reboot Foundation, which teaches critical thinking skills to combat fake news. She said we’re just not inclined to second-guess information when it’s flooding our social media feeds. 

As the world struggles to break the grip of COVID-19, psychologists and misinformation experts are studying why the pandemic spawned so many conspiracy theories, which have led people to eschew masks, social distancing and vaccines.

They’re seeing links between beliefs in COVID-19 falsehoods and the reliance on social media as a source of news and information.

And they’re concluding COVID-19 conspiracy theories persist by providing a false sense of empowerment. By offering hidden or secretive explanations, they give the believer a feeling of control in a situation that otherwise seems random or frightening.

What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was the culmination of years of conspiracy theories and falsehoods. Some say the threat of another such uprising remains as we continue to live in a digital “echo chamber” — one designed to show us the world how we want to see it with a digital wall of algorithms between us and information from another perspective. 

Disinformation and misinformation can make us emotional and angry and can even lead to violence. So how do we learn to recognize that and better assess the information we are flooded with?

Disinformation expert and critical thinking advocate Helen Lee Bouygues talks about the power and the dangers of dis- and misinformation in a hyper-polarized world and how we can improve our critical thinking skills in these uncertain times.

Many of the people who took part in violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 said they believed the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Some experts have said the riots were fueled by conspiracy theories.

Helen Lee Bouygues is the founder of the Reboot Foundation, an organization focused on promoting critical thinking. She’s a fake news expert and she spoke to ABC NewsRadio’s Thomas Oriti.

Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building on Wednesday (January 6) to protest the outcome of the November 3 presidential election on the day the US Congress was slated to ratify Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.

Speaking on India Today’s special show Newstrack with Rahul Kanwal, Reboot President Helen Lee Bouygues weighed in on the decisions by Twitter and Facebook to ban Donald Trump from their platforms.