At The Heart Of Misinformation — Introduction

Misinformation, a term tossed, stirred, fried by internet’s frying pan that is accessed by multiple cooks who are nothing but people who seek the real information. Facebook, has over the years become quite vocal about the spread of fake news, WhatsApp is driving awareness campaigns to ensure people forward messages responsibly. Fact Checking platforms are on the rise that will verify the credibility of suspicious piece of news or information. Where is this leading us towards?

First, the challenge used to be with information overload and a need to better organize information to solve specific purpose. But now the realization has been that it isn’t the overload of information that is the problem or even the easy availability of it — that makes misinformation the grand villain, it is anyone who believes in it makes it stronger. Which is what is causing the epidemic to grow.

With this multi blog series titled — ‘At the heart of Misinformation’ [#ATHOM], our quest would be to ask questions, discuss insights and try to get to the bottom of the matter when it comes to this topic through real stories, instances etc. Basically, examples that help us get a better understanding of misinformation and how it can be managed, so that we do not fall victim to it.

Why is Misinformation one of the most pressing concerns of the 21st Century? How is it only going to get worse? What can we do about it? What can we learn from it? These are just some of the many questions that’ll be explored here.

At UnFound, we are on a mission to #RebelAgainstMisinformation, however to rebel against an enemy of such proportions, it is necessary to get a deeper understanding of what makes it a problem in the first place.

Join us as we explore misinformation because while we believe AI has the potential to cure this, it is still at the end of the day a human problem. Something that would require us to treat it accordingly.