Misinformation Vs Disinformation

Misinformation is a widely regarded term for falsified information that is spread through unreliable or unverifiable means. Most use it to describe the virulence of fake news on social media, which is shared across the internet by those uneducated regarding the identification of falsified information. 

In the literal sense, misinformation means inaccurate information. Nowadays, the word has been misused and misunderstood so often that people can rarely differentiate between misinformation and its closely worded counter, disinformation.

Disinformation refers to falsified information that is spread or published to mislead those who are exposed to it. Under the guise of propaganda, disinformation is often used as a political tactic to spread rumours that could steer public opinion towards a certain ideology. Learning the difference between the two terms is extremely important in today’s world because of the rise in both through the internet.

Disinformation is rife in areas where the public does not have clear access to credible facts and relies mainly on the verbal communication of information. This is particularly dangerous when it comes to important pieces of information on topics that are politically, socially, economically, or culturally nuanced and could have a polarizing effect on the receiver. 

Detecting false information, whether misinformation or disinformation, is cumbersome. Even with the amount of technology available in today’s day and age, well-fabricated pieces can easily be mistaken for the truth. The spread of false information is an extremely pertinent global risk, as stated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this year. 

Internet freedom plays a massive role in this light. The explosion of copious amounts of information made readily available has greatly inflated the repercussions that accompany the circulation of fake news. With easily accessible and unverifiable sources such as those available online, many individuals are convinced by black-and-white statements made to cover up facts. We must delve deeper into the issue, however, to understand why disinformation and misinformation have been made so prevalent, allowing them to evolve into convincing content that is accessible to millions on social media.

The reason why so much misinformation is spread through social networks, selected from the World Wide Web, is that people often believe messages from those that they know due to their own internal biases and the fact of their trust in those who communicate such news to them. This allows for misinformation to gain a headstart through websites that are accessible to those who are vulnerable to it- messaging apps that are navigable to the older generations are often used as quick disseminators of such false information.

When certain data paints a community or political ideology in a bad light, people are more likely to absorb the information without bothering to gauge its validity as it aligns with their own beliefs. This is another reason why political disinformation works as a powerful tool to sway public opinion or to polarize social groups, and also why it is rarely disputed and is not discovered easily.

According to the American Psychology Association, repeated information sticks more easily in the minds of people. When using technology, most are aware that their activity is being tracked, but are unaware that the data taken from their interactions online that are not protected by privacy policies is applied to target more of the same content towards them. 

This is the way devices and applications are programmed, as their goals are to gain increasing interaction from the user, but ultimately could contribute to the spread of false information if such content is even engaged with minimally – which is why it is easy to go down the rabbit hole of misinformation or disinformation. This is also the reason for the inkling most of us sometimes have that our phones are “spying on us” when content of a repeated nature is thrown at us when we are conversing about the same topic.

The above are some ways that false information is spread and should especially be recognised online. Digital literacy is integral to being cognizant of traces of misinformation and disinformation; to keep our facts objective, unbiased, reliable and valid. The first step is to understand the repercussions of these very real problems and to keep ourselves informed about current ongoings.  

In conclusion, evaluating data is just as crucial to registering it as understanding it and applying it. Fact-check the next post you see online before believing it.