Information Disorder
dis/mis/mal-information?
Definitions of dis/mis/mal-information??
. . .
- dis-information
- intentionally false and designed to gain money, influence, and power or cause harm
- mis-information
- false but not known to be so
- mal-information
- true or false, designed to cause harm
All can result in agnotology
What is agnotology?
. . .
the strategic and purposeful production of ignorance (boyd 2019) (lowercase name)
dis/mis/mal-information examples?
- dis-information (false & intentional)
- Roger Stone on stolen election
- mis-information (false & unintentional)
- older relative on stolen election
- mal-information (regardless of intent, harmful)
- DNC/Hillary emails
Types of mis- and dis-information
Satire or parody
No intention to cause harm but has potential to fool. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., The Onion; Le Gorafi on Macron washing hands
False connection
When headlines, visuals or captions don’t support the content. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., clickbait
Misleading content
Misleading use of information to frame an issue or individual. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., NYT on Presidential judicial appointments (15 vs 24)
False context
When genuine content is shared with false contextual information. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., Muslim woman looking away; child in cage
Imposter content
When genuine sources are impersonated. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., impersonations of BBC, NOW THIS, Le Soir, Miami Herald
Manipulated content
When genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., ICE police at voting location, Gozalez ripping Constitution, Pelosi slowed down
Fabricated content
New content that is 100% false, made to deceive and do harm. (Wardle 2022)
e.g., Pope Francis endorses Trump, Nathan for You’s pig saving goat (Wardle 2022)
Spotting AI images
noise; non-converging lines;
Spotting AI video
short clips; funky text & teeth; continuity of character, people, & environment; incoherent logic; non-converging lines
“Can You Tell What’s Real?”
Recent examples??
Can you find an example in the news from the past year?
- satire or parody
- false connection
- misleading content
- false context
- imposter content
- manipulated content
- fabricated content
Aside: “reputable” vs “fake” news?
e.g., bias: “real” = low; “fake” = high
. . .
| Attribute | “real” | “fake” |
|---|---|---|
| bias | low | high |
| basis | reality | ideology |
| motivation | inform | persuade |
| accountability | high | low |
| news/opinion firewall | discrete | blurred |
| size | larger | smaller |
| sources | verifiable | not |
| ? | ? | ? |
“Crap detection” redux
Where does it come from?
- foreign government agents
- hyper-partisans
- and Macedonia scammers (for money, not ideology)
FB’s response?
- easier flagging
- reporting to fact checkers
- improving algorithm
- disrupting financial incentives (Mosseri 2016)
Who checks the fact-checkers?
Facebook Took Down A Fact-Check Of An Anti-Abortion Video After Republicans Complained
The fact-check was conducted by three doctors who determined an anti-abortion activist’s claim that “abortion is never medically necessary” was false. (Koerner 2019)
Mistakes were made (Hunter’s laptop)
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020
