‘It’s not relevant because you already know all of it’: how Australian diaspora youth navigate truth and misinformation online

Young people are often assumed to be competent users of digital platforms; however, today's online environment is flooded with challenges, one of which is misinformation. We examine the social media practices of 14 Australian diaspora youth – a cohort often believed to be more at risk from digital risks and harms – and how they navigated online misinformation during the COVID-19 lockdowns. We find that while participants received some digital and media literacy education in school, this did not meet their specific needs, or enhance capabilities when it came to determining whether the information they encountered on social media was factual. We argue that school digital and media literacy education could more effectively support diaspora youth to navigate challenging content by building on the everyday competencies they enact in their social media use.