Here's an unexpected opening to a Writing Program Administrator's blog post:
Authoritarians stand to gain the most when educators place political dissidents in the same category as criminals who victimize the innocent and exploit the weak.
So, it's probably not okay that a popular infographic often used to teach about digital literacy places political dissidents in the same category as illegal porn, drugs, and stolen credit cards.
Many of my heroes have been labeled as political dissidents at one time or another: Angela Davis, Václav Havel, Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai, Carlos Fonseca, Thomas Sankara, Emma Goldman, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Liu Xiaobo, Harriet Tubman, and the list goes on.
While none of these people were perfect, they all worked and sacrificed to restrain the unjust use of power in the hands of authorities (authorities who deemed themselves completely legitimate). It's a sacrifice I admire above most.
Imagine my surprise then when the infographic popped on-screen during a classroom discussion I was leading on how writing instructors should invite input from other experts when teaching topics such as information literacy.
The students had a good laugh when I stopped dead in my tracks while reading aloud the list of things found in this dangerous part of the deep web. I turned to them and asked, "Is illegal porn really in the same boat as political dissidents?"
They didn't think so.
The infographic was part of a library tutorial on information literacy that we share with first-year students. When asked about it, our librarians quickly acknowledged that the equivalence was problematic. They agreed to pull the graphic.
A happy outcome locally, but I was curious about how widespread use of the image was.
The infographic was originally published in 2014 by CNN Money. It has since found its way onto several different places online. For example, a 2023 post in Writing Commons, instructions for developing college-level library database tutorials, and a university journal that publishes the exceptional work of graduate students. So, it should not be a shock that the image pops up on other university library tutorials or that it became part of our university's tutorial to teach students about researching online.
The subject isn't an easy one to teach, and the infographic does look great. Nearly all of the information on it is informative and accurate. I can understand why people building lessons around this subject would miss the bit about political dissidents being an arm of the evil Kraken of lawlessness.
But... it is also typically used in a class that focuses on critical reading. So, there is that.
And yeah, there is also probably something to be written about the infographic's origin being a news outlet operated by an international megacorporation that is deeply invested in the current status quo, but I think it better to leave things here:
Education tools are not perfect. This doesn't make them useless or malevolent, but it does mean that educators and students need to stay sharp and critical when teaching and learning.
