Social Media and Historical Fakes: How it influences historical science and our knowledge about the world

In today’s society social media platforms inform and create our knowledge about the world. Given their ability to influence people’s views and feelings about the surrounding reality, they became one of the most powerful tools in distorting the perception of daily news but also the events from the past. For instance, social media can contribute to spreading forged or distorted historical primary sources. In order to address the growing challenge of biassed and inaccurate online information, this teaching practice presents 3 activities which help address historical fakes, conspiracy theories and filter bubbles in the classroom.

The Application of the Practice

For this teaching practice, Maryna Kaftan combined three activities that allow to discuss the topic of historical fakes in the classroom.

Activity 1: Explore filter bubbles

Filter bubbles are a prominent problem on social media. Due to the way in which algorithms of these platforms are set up, people are often exposed only to one set of arguments without knowing about the existence of other viewpoints. This activity prepares students to identify this challenge.

In the first step, the teacher chooses a topic which caused a controversy on the social media platforms. An example of such a topic could be the Nobel Peace Prize 2022. In the light of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the decision to jointly award Ukrainian, Russian and Belarussian civil rights campaigners (Ales Bialiatski, Centre for Civil Liberties and Memorial) was perceived by some social media users as placing the victim among the representatives of aggressor countries.
The teacher prepares three packs of primary sources – each one of them representing a different point of view on the matter
Students form three groups
Students search for information about the winners
They study their packs of primary sources – reactions to Nobel Committee tweet about the winners
Students write down the list of arguments displayed by the sources. They can add more arguments – and write up to 5 sentences about this event
Presentation of results and discussion with other groups

An example of a source pack for students

Activity 2: Alternative history through manipulations and disinformation

This activity can reveal and put into context the elements of mythical thinking in present-day society. Commonly, myths arise about the events from the past and, hence, fuel the existing conspiracy theories. Here, the mission of Apollo 11 and the moon landing in 1969 can serve as an example. The activity which addresses manipulations in history can be conducted in four steps:

Form two groups (-pro, and -con)
Watch the video by Mr. Beat. Write down the arguments of your side
Put them on a board side-by-side with counter arguments
How do you think people came with these doubts? Are they justified? Which side would you choose? What other reasons can you give support or debunk the given arguments?

The first question, when discussing a conspiracy theory, that should be put to students is “why?” What are the reasons for which people formulate and spread conspiracy theories, like the one of moon landing?

Activity 3: Alternative History: a case of Tartaria

This activity addresses the creation of alternative history through a belief in “hidden” or “lost” cultures. Adherents of this conspiracy theory consider Tartaria as a lost civilization which cultivated a much higher standard of living and more advanced architectural styles. The reason to study: This story is spread not by one source, but by a group of believers on social media. There is no one authoritative source of information. The ideas are born and developed by numerous fans. They can also choose to believe only a part of the theory.

The discussion about alternative history, such as the example of Tartaria, can be organised in three stages:

Get to know the theory (consult Wikipedia, thread on Reddit)
Answer the questions
1. What is the theory about?
2. What historical facts does it use?
3. What does it reject?
4. How primary sources are used (and abused)?
5. Why do people do it? What is the goal of creating this conspiracy theory?
Fill in the table below

Age Group: 13-16 years

Planned time per activity: 15 minutes

Obstacles and lessons learned

It can be time-consuming for a teacher to include the varied points of view in the source material.

The effect of the practice

Students are able to more critically assess the news appearing on the social media

Students can identify the motivations and goals of formulating conspiracy theories

Students become more aware about the abuse of historical sources in contemporary society

About the Author

Maryna Kaftan (Ukraine) is a media literacy trainer, head of “Mediana” NGO, focused on media literacy education. Has a MA degree in history and almost 10 years of experience working as an international news editor on TV and online. Maryna Kaftan took part in creating the new State Standard of Basic Education of Ukraine, has experience of teaching teenagers (history, media literacy, art history) and adults (teachers’ after-graduate education).

Written by Adam Dargiewicz and Andreas Holtberget on the basis of Maryna Kaftan’s presentation during LTT Seminar in autumn 2022. This was done as part of the collection of teaching practices for the Critical History project with co-funding of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.