Misinformation spreads fast when people are afraid and a contagious and potentially fatal disease is frightening. This provides the ideal emotionally charged context for rumours to thrive.
Twitter’s proposed policy would result in the prolific spread of fabricated, but highly realistic images and videos. This could allow widespread misinformation on the platform.
Ukrainians don’t agree on how their president should have handled Trump’s request.
Andreas Wolochow/Shutterstock.com
Every day, new “alternative facts” are peddled in the public realm. But misinformation is not solely a modern problem - its origins are as old as humanity.
Newspaper editors once sorted through letters to decide which would be published in their newspaper. Our comments moderation policy is no different.
Sun Alan Levine Public domain dpi
Publishing the comments of climate change deniers would be journalistically irresponsible. That’s why we’re redoubling our efforts to weed out misinformation.
In a news cycle full of clownish characters and outrageous rhetoric, it’s no wonder satire isn’t fully registering with a lot of readers.
The Onion
You might see a headline from The Onion or The Babylon Bee and, for a split second, think it’s true. But many social media users don’t get the joke – and share these articles as if they’re real.
New evidence suggests most YouTube videos on climate change deny its existence.
Claims of ‘fake news’ and misinformation campaigns have already arisen in the federal election campaign, a problem the political parties and tech companies are ill-equipped to address.
Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA
New regulations have been rolled out to counter the spread of misinformation during the campaign, but these steps will largely be ineffective in the fast-moving social media sphere
Since last year, Facebook has been taking down fake news accounts from countries all over the world.
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It’s easier than ever to create a fake image and spread it far and wide online. But there are steps that you can take to protect yourself from fishy photos.
In Indonesia, age doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on one’s intention to share fake news.
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Research in Indonesia shows that people’s age, education levels and gender do not determine their likelihood to share fake news. Internet spending does.
Vaccines are an important health intervention.
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Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Protecting democracy requires more than just technical solutions. It includes education, critical thinking and members of society working together to agree on problems and find solutions.
Social media misinformation rose significantly before the 2016 presidential election.
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The Iffy Quotient measured misinformation on social media in the run-up to the recent elections. Facebook has gotten better at combating untrustworthy links, but Twitter still struggles.
Congolese health workers prepare equipment before the launch of vaccination campaign against the deadly Ebola virus.
REUTERS/Samuel Mambo