Remember that the amount of information people take in on a daily basis, just on their phones — emails, social media notifications, and push alerts — means heuristics become even more impactful. Therefore logos, the accurate wording of disclaimers or bylines from known reporters are disproportionately impactful. As well as text, videos and images, we increasingly need to be aware of the power of audio to deceive. In the run up to the Brazilian presidential election in October 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed during a campaign event. He spent the next 17 days in hospital. During that time, an audio message emerged that purported to be Bolsonaro, where he cursed at the nurses and stated “that the theater is over”, which led to conspiracies that his stabbing had been deliberately staged to increase sympathy and therefore support for the candidate. Forensic audio specialists were able to analyse the recording and to confirm that the voice was not Bolsonaro — but that it was a very authenticsounding impersonator. A site that poses as a local Ohio newspaper was actually set up by Republican consultants. Retrieved October 16 2019.24 Finally, another technique that has been investigated by Snopes is the creation of sites that look and sound like professional local news sites, such as The Ohio Star or the Minnesota Sun. A network of these sites has been set up by Republican consultants, designed to look like reputable local news sites. There are five of these sites as part of the Star News Digital Media network, sites which are partly funded by the Republican candidates that these news sites are covering. 42 I N F O R M AT I O N D I S O R D E R Four websites that look like reputable local news are actually part of a network of sites set up by Republican consultants. Archived September 6 2019.25 IMPOSTER CONTENT 43