Misinformation

Misinformation is wrong or confusing information. Unlike disinformation, which is made to trick people, misinformation often spreads by accident. It can happen because someone doesn’t know better, makes a mistake, or misunderstands something. This wrong information might be incomplete, confusing, or totally false.

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and X let misinformation spread very fast. In January 2024, the World Economic Forum said that misinformation and disinformation are big risks to the world. They can change what people think about important subjects like communities, politics, and medicine.

Sometimes, rules to stop misinformation can also limit what journalists can report or what people can say. In some places, these rules have been used to restrict media freedom.

Terminology

People use different words to talk about wrong or harmful information. Misinformation is false information that isn’t shared to hurt anyone on purpose. It often happens because someone doesn’t know the facts or makes a mistake.

Disinformation is when someone shares false information on purpose to trick people. This can hurt others and make it hard for people to trust what they hear.

There is also malinformation, which is true information shared to cause harm, like sharing someone’s private details to change how people think about them. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is sharing misinformation or disinformation because we can’t always know their intentions.

Rumors are stories that no one knows are true or false and have no clear source. These words might mean slightly different things depending on where you are in the world.

Malinformation Disinformation Rumors

History

Misinformation means sharing incorrect or misleading information. Long ago, people spread false stories to hurt political rivals in places like Italy and France. During big events, like when Spain fought England, wrong reports were shared to influence important decisions.

As new ways to share news developed, such as television and radio, misinformation spread more easily. The invention of the internet made it even easier for false information to travel quickly. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people shared wrong ideas about treatments and vaccines on social media. This shows how important it is to check facts before sharing information.

The first big made-up story was the Great Moon Hoax in 1835, where a newspaper claimed to have found life on the Moon. Even today, during elections and health crises, misinformation can affect many people. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, false news spread widely on social media, and many people believed it to be true.

COVID-19 misinformation

Main article: COVID-19 misinformation

Misinformation was a big problem during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media helped spread wrong ideas about symptoms, treatments, and long-term effects. This led some people to avoid vaccines or ignore health guidelines.

Research

See also: Disinformation research

Research on fixing wrong information often looks at fact-checking. But it can be hard because people might keep believing something even when they see the facts. Researchers also study why people believe wrong information. Feelings matter, as people may trust information that feels right. Social media makes it easy to share and get information, linking many people quickly. With new technology, news often spreads fast online, and many adults in the US get some news from social media.

Causes

Several things make people believe wrong information. These include skills in spotting fake news, personal beliefs, and feelings. How groups behave also matters, as people often trust others who are like them, creating spaces where similar ideas are repeated. Big trends like political divides, money problems, and less trust in experts also help. Online platforms make it easy for false information to spread quickly, often because it is exciting or emotional. As people choose their own news sources, they might pick ones that match what they already believe, making misinformed beliefs more likely. Even trusted news sources can sometimes share stories that are not fully checked in the fast 24 hour news cycle. Pictures or videos shared with false claims can also make them seem true.

Identification

There are ways to lessen the effect of wrong information. One way is to check where the information came from and ask if it is trustworthy. It helps to look for other reliable sources covering the same story. The SIFT Method teaches four steps: Stop to think, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims back to where they started. This can help see if important details are missing or if the source might not be reliable.

Factors influencing susceptibility to misinformation

Different things like age, political views, and how social media websites work can change how likely someone is to believe false information. Older adults might be more likely to believe misinformation because of changes in memory or less experience with online information. They may also trust information shared by friends or family online, even if it is not correct. Political views can also shape what information a person believes, as people often like information that matches their own views.

AI contribution to the problem and aid in combatting

The rise of Artificial intelligence has created new kinds of false information. AI can change images, videos, and audio to make fake content that looks real. This is called synthetic media and it can be used to spread misleading news. While AI can create false content, it can also help find and fight misinformation. Tools can sometimes tell if an image or video is made by AI, though this gets harder as the technology gets better.

Countermeasures

Correcting wrong information is important. Making a correction work well depends on matching a person’s beliefs, repeating the correction, and having a trusted source share it. Corrections don’t work as well if the wrong information comes from someone trusted, is repeated before correction, or if there is a delay before the correction.

Websites like FactCheck.org help people tell fact from fiction, especially with viral stories. Some sites focus on specific topics, like climate change. Social media platforms use tools to flag false information and provide links to trusted fact-checking sites.

One way to fight misinformation is by using groups of people to identify and label false information, similar to how Wikipedia works. This can be faster and more complete than professional fact-checking alone. For this to work well, people need to trust the group giving the facts, the correction needs to challenge their existing beliefs, and a diverse group of people is needed.

When talking to someone about misinformation, sharing facts directly often doesn’t work well. It can help to ask questions that make them think about why they believe something. Being kind and understanding keeps the conversation going.

Before people encounter wrong information, some methods aim to “protect” them by showing how misinformation works and common tricks used to spread it. This can help people recognize false information later.

Other ideas to fight misinformation include using technology to detect false content, better tools to check the source of information, and teaching people how to find and evaluate information well. Learning about media and information is important for everyone.

AI can help by checking facts in real time, spotting fake audio and video, and teaching people about information and media literacy.

Even with corrections, wrong information can stick around. This can happen if the corrections don’t reach the right people or if people see the wrong information again later. Most experts think that corrections usually help and rarely make beliefs worse, though they might not work for everyone.

Online misinformation

Further information: Health information on the Internet § Social media

In recent years, many people have noticed that wrong or confusing information appears often online. Almost everyone can use the Internet now. Social media websites and apps can help spread this bad information. For example, when people share something without checking if it’s true, it can cause problems. Websites like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo News show us news based on what they think we like, which can sometimes mean we see false information.

Social media has been blamed for sharing things that aren’t true, like made-up stories or old rumors. This can make people feel worried or confused, especially during big events. Sharing false information can also make it hard to find the facts we need.

On social media

In the Information Age, social networking sites have become big places where false information, fake news, and tricky messages spread. These sites have tried to change their systems to stop fake news, but it’s still a problem.

Social media makes it easy to share false information. People share it for many reasons, like to start a conversation, because they think it’s interesting, or to share their opinion. Researchers worry that false information on social media is becoming hard to stop. It has been seen that false information and tricky messages appear again and again on these sites.^{[citation needed]}

False information spread by bots is hard for social media to stop.

False information often spreads when people share posts from their friends or pages they follow. These posts come from people they trust, so they believe them more easily.

People often follow others who think like them, creating echo chambers and filter bubbles. This makes it hard to fight untrue ideas because people only see what agrees with them.

False information might be shared on purpose to cause worry or trick people. Computational Propaganda groups use both tricky messages and false information.

False information spreads faster on social media than on traditional media because there are no rules to check posts before they go online. This means speed is more important than getting facts right.

Because the Internet lets anyone post anything, people can share content without anyone checking it. This means false information can appear and spread quickly on the Internet.

Fighting false information on social media is hard because:

• There are so many sources of false information that it’s hard to know what to trust.
• Social media often links to arguments about beliefs, which mixes false information with strong feelings.
• Echo chambers create groups where everyone thinks the same, pushing ideas to extremes.

Journalists are sometimes blamed for spreading false information on social media, but studies show they also help by correcting and denying rumors.

By platform

Misinformation on TikTok

A report by NewsGuard found that some videos on TikTok contained false information. TikTok’s style of short, fast videos makes people scroll quickly without checking facts. During the pandemic, TikTok had many videos with unproven cures and conspiracy theories.

Misinformation on Facebook

A study found that Facebook users were more likely to click on false information than true facts. Facebook has been watched closely for spreading false information. Facebook said there were many troll bots sharing false information, and they tried to stop it.

Misinformation on Twitter

Main articles: Twitter under Elon Musk § Misinformation and disinformation, and Community Notes

Twitter is a big place for political fake news.

Misinformation on Telegram

Telegram has been accused of helping create and spread false information because it has few rules and no fact-checking tools.

Misinformation on YouTube

Impact

The Liar's Dividend happens when people worry so much about fake information, like videos made with computers, that they start doubting real news too. For example, a leader might say a real video showing something embarrassing is fake, just to make people doubt it. This can make people trust even good sources less.

Misinformation can affect many parts of life. It can make it hard to know what is true, whether we hear it in conversations, read it online, or see it in the news. This can confuse people about important issues.

In politics, misinformation can change elections and policies. People who spread false information can sound very sure of themselves, making others believe them. For example, during the 2016 UK European Union membership referendum, a campaign claimed leaving the EU would save money for the British National Health Service. Many people believed this, even though it was later shown to be misleading.

Companies can also use misinformation to change people's beliefs. For example, in the past, some tobacco companies spread false information to make people doubt studies linking smoking to lung cancer.

In medicine, misinformation can be very dangerous. For example, false ideas about vaccines or using herbs instead of proper medicine can put people's health at risk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation caused confusion and fear.

Censorship accusations

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have sometimes been asked to remove posts that might have wrong or misleading information. Some people feel this is unfair because it can stop people from sharing different opinions, especially about government rules.

For example, in 2020, a video said a certain medicine could cure COVID-19, but experts said this was not true. The video was shared many times before the sites removed it. Another case happened before the 2020 election with a story about a political family. Some said the sites removed it to control what people saw, but later some of the information might have been true.