FAKE NEWS, MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION
Misinformation vs Disinformation - how high is the risk?
The words of the decade;
Misinformation
And disinformation
It seems like one can`t go anywhere on the Internet without seeing these terms in one form or another; regardless of the context or topic. Fake news, propaganda, false information call it what you will - it's everywhere on the Internet. According to the website of the World Health Organization, “four studies reviewed in a paper looked at the proportion of health misinformation on social media, and found that it reached up to 51% in posts associated with vaccines, up to 28.8% in posts associated with COVID-19, and up to 60% in posts related to pandemics. Among YouTube videos about emerging infectious diseases, 20–30% were found to contain inaccurate or misleading information.”
The term misinformation is applied across a range of topics, contexts,and for a range of reasons. Due to this, and “to the inherent dynamism of the social media ecosystem, its definition is increasingly elusive.” It is not always easily spotted at first glance.For these reasons, defining what misinformation and disinformation are are not easy tasks. This is without mentioning distinguishing between them.
Misinformation is generally incorrect, inaccurate, or deceptive information. There may or may not be intent to deceive. Dissent, in other words. Information diverging from the consensus to some degree.
So dissent can certainly be healthy. Think Galileo and the observation of the earth rotating around the sun, Semmelweis and the initiation of handwashing, Darwin and evolution. All principles we take for granted today. The key point is; dissent can be healthy. So I'm absolutely not advocating for complete authoritarianism and not allowing anyone to speak their mind.
That said; fake news can take a darker turn. Disinformation vs. misinformation can really be summed up in a single word. Intent. Disinformation involves a deliberate attempt to deceive. Think companies quoting inaccurate or even blatantly incorrect statistics to sell a product; a politician exaggerating or downplaying events as their political agenda requires. It can have a serious impact. Further,misinformation can take unanticipated forms - in fact, an article published on theconversation.com June 30th, 2023 described how misinformation commonly takes the unexpected form of images.
For instance, a picture was repeatedly posted as “proof” that now-former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace was a close associate of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. In reality, the grey-haired man in the image is not Epstein but actor George Clooney.” In terms of political misinformation, the Brazilian government circulated false information on politics COVID 19 deaths as well as its treatment and prevention. A 2021 analysis found that this occurred primarily through channels such as WhatsApp, and social media channels such as Facebook using messaging as well as images and videos. What's also interesting is that it had greater reach in certain regions of the country including the Southeast and Northeast of Brazil.
So what`s clear is that free expression is important; however there are consequences to allowing information to spread completely unregulated. There are literally countless examples to highlight this According to the website of the World Health Organization; infodemics and misinformation negatively affect people's health behaviours. This is particularly true during pandemics, outbreaks, and disasters; and can by extension increase vaccine hesitancy and delay the provision of medical supplies to one or more geographical regions. Further, during the 2022 United States Midterm Election, some of the most radical politicians in the Republican Party were fueled by the unfounded belief that the previous presidential election in 2020 was stolen.
Also, it isn't simply the misinformation itself that's concerning. It's how multifaceted it`s become in the age of AI. Software programs can design and share breathtaking images, headlines, and videos in a matter of moments. This makes it almost impossible to interpret what is real and what isn't anymore. According to an article on theconversation.com; “deep fakes” are AI generated images that can appear more genuine than real photos. They are named this due to the technology used to create then; deep learning neural networks. With such depth of kerning it will not be surprising that significant consequences can result from the use of this technology. For example; in early 2023 a fake LinkedIn profile was created with an AI generated profile picture. It gained media attention because it successfully connected with US officials and various other respected individuals. The article also describes how this can be used for malicious purposes such as political propaganda, information warfare and espionage purposes. Further; the effect of how people premiere fake news has been well demonstrated in studies.
According to an article published on theconversation.com on July 27th, 2017, a test was conducted on approximately 700 undergraduate students. They were shown a variety of screenshots of actual news website banners — ranging from established news sources like the the Globe and Mail, more partisan sources like Fox News and the Huffington Post, online aggregators like Yahoo! News and social media outlets like Upworthy — and were asked to rate their legitimacy on a scale of zero to 100.
Also included were actual screenshots of fake news websites, some of which gained prominence during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. One of these fake news sources was a website called ABCnews.com.co, which is made to look like ABC News, and featured some false content that gained prominence after it was retweeted by Eric Trump. The others were the Boston Tribune and World True News.
The findings are troubling. Even though the sample group was mostly composed of politically sophisticated and engaged news consumers (by their own admission), the respondents attributed more legitimacy to fake news outlets like ABCnews.com.co or the Boston Tribune than to Yahoo! News, an actual news organisation.
Although these results are preliminary and part of a larger study, they are consistent with other research: people, and especially young people, have a hard time separating good sources of information from questionable ones or determining whether a photograph is authentic or fabricated.
However this was an organised controlled environment. Even in such an environment the study demonstrated the difficulty people had separating fact from fiction. One can imagine, then, how this becomes much more complex in the real - world online environment. Up to billions of posts, photos, and videos are uploaded and shared on every social media platform daily. This scale is difficult to even conceptualise, let alone distinguish which are genuine and which are less so. In fact in some cases; AI generated photos can appear more authentic than real photos! Thus; improvements in the quality of computer generated media is outpacing the development of technology to identify it.
Conclusion
So remember; there are people behind every image, every statistic, every patient case study. So when you hit “post”, you`re not just sharing information. You`re impacting lives. Let's keep that in mind. Thanks for reading!
References;
Infodemics and misinformation negatively affect people’s health behaviours, new WHO review finds
Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media: Systematic Review - PMC, CC BY 4.0 Deed | Attribution 4.0 International | Creative Commons
Four centuries after Galileo was silenced, UK students are still curbing free speech
Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor who discovered the disease-fighting power of hand-washing in 1847
How fake foreign news fed political fervour and led to the American Revolution
.Análise de fake news veiculadas durante a pandemia de COVID-19 no Brasil - PMC -CC BY 4.0 Deed | Attribution 4.0 International | Creative Commons