Image Source: Bippley, Courtney. The Four Moves: SIFTing Through the Internet. Durham Tech Library Blog. March 21, 2022. link

Lateral reading is defined as making another search of your source via the Internet and various search portals, to explicitly see what other people claim, regarding the credibility of the source you are considering.

To lateral read a website of an article:

Open up a tab next to your original webpage. Use a search engine to look up the website, author’s, or organization’s name and read what other websites not affiliated with the original source has to say. (Tulsa Community College)
This can give you more objective insight into the source and their reputation on the web. Look at a few sources to confirm (use more tabs to really maximize that lateral comparison).
Use lateral reading to dig deeper into the source and author of any content you consume.