Disinformation is Everywhere–but What Exactly is Disinformation?
There has been a lot of buzz around the concept of disinformation lately. All over social media and beyond, it is talked about only at the surface level. But disinformation in its many forms involves much more than meets the eye.
In this series, we will demystify disinformation– from the problem, to the anatomy, to the solution.
“Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers.”
–Kevin Kelley, co-founder of Wired magazine
Most of us are familiar with misinformation. It happens all the time: A friend thinks they know something, they pass it on to their friend, that friend does the same, and before they know it, they have an entire network of people believing a falsity that they mistakenly thought was true.
A recent example of this is the spread of coronavirus misinformation on Whatsapp, often by well-meaning friends and relatives. This misinformation ranges from home “cures” for the coronavirus to theories about its origin, with one common thread: it is all false.
Clearly, misinformation can be dangerous. It’s the reason why we fact-check; why we’re careful to distinguish between fact and opinion; and why we Google things twice before we tell somebody else, just to be sure.
Enter disinformation.
While misinformation is an honest mistake, disinformation is characterized by intent.
This can be intent to harm a person, group, or cause, or simply to further one’s own cause through deception. Disinformation can be extremely powerful and, as we have seen in recent years, can influence real-world outcomes in politics, public health, or almost any sphere in which there are sides to take.
Some of the most prominent examples of disinformation campaigns which you might remember are:
- The 2016 United States presidential election
- The Brexit election
- The Hong Kong Protests
- The Aids virus in the late 1980s
And, currently ongoing:
In each of these cases, we have seen false and sometimes libelous information originated by bots and trolls and spread quickly and aggressively through the internet. While we would all like to think that we are above being fooled by fake news of this sort, the issue of distinguishing fact from fiction online is not always so straightforward.
As Kevin Kelly of Wired magazine said, “Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers. For every fact, there is a counterfact and all these counterfacts and facts look identical online,” which, simply put, is the problem.
The proliferation of disinformation online is not due to the actions of bots and trolls alone, but also to its conversion to misinformation, as users online share the information with good intentions, not knowing that it is fabricated.
A Pew Research Center study conducted after the 2016 election found that 64% of American adults believe fake news stories cause a great deal of confusion, and 23% said they had shared fabricated political stories themselves — whether by mistake or intentionally.
More recently, a 2020 study from the PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist Poll found that 59% of Americans say that it is hard to identify false information, with 55% saying that it has become more difficult to distinguish between real and fake news since the 2016 election.
In summary, disinformation and fake news is a real problem, and a lot of people know it. But you might still be wondering how they reach all of these people in the first place–which brings us to our next question, and our next installment.
If you like what you’re reading, be sure to applaud this story (did you know that you can hold down the applaud button and it’ll keep adding claps–it’s addictive!) and follow our channel!
What’s humanID?
humanID is a new anonymous online identity that blocks bots and social media manipulation. If you care about privacy and protecting free speech, consider supporting humanID at www.human-id.org, and follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn.
