🎲 Fake news: misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda
AI data and trends for business leaders: #2024-07 | AI systems series
Disinformation, or purposely false information, and misinformation, or misleading information presented as reality, can be made to appear authentic and spread quickly to thousands of users.
Fake news is information that is plainly fabricated, and that has been packaged and distributed to appear as legitimate news.
It is getting harder to spot fake news since it is quickly becoming a growing industry, with specific sectors and people who get paid to write sensationalist articles and produce content that will entice readers to trigger more website visits (clickbait).
Fake news and misinformation have a dangerous fallout; they can stir up trouble, rip apart reputations, and misguide, leading to unnecessary prejudice.
Given the nature and importance of social media, it can go viral and lead to rabble-rousing; it is actually the biggest drawback of social media usage and consumption.
The rapid spread of fake news has profound consequences on society: distrust in the media, undermining of the democratic process, platforms for harmful conspiracy theories and hate speech, and spread of false or discredited science (e.g., anti-vax movement).
Over time, and worldwide, the cyber security wings have been working to bring justice to cybercrime victims.
But modernization penetrates everywhere, and cyber criminals constantly adopt new ways of duping online.
Identity threats are increasingly growing and are used to extort money using fake profiles of eminent individuals. Likewise, cyberbullying is becoming a thing.
▸ Overall, social media platforms are becoming the niches of highly polarized activities instead of entertaining places for interactions.
So how do you evaluate news?
↓↓↓ Some facts below ↓↓↓
Bias or not bias, that is the question
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
—Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Newsweek, 25 August 1986, p. 27
📌 Fact 1 : social media
“At the beginning of 2021, over 35 percent of surveyed Generation Z and Millennials confessed they would usually ignore COVID-19 information shared by others on social media or messaging platforms that they knew was false. Meanwhile, 24.4 percent reported the content and 19.3 percent commented on it.”—According to Statista, Aug 30, 2023.
Social media is a critical source of propagating fake news. Even though social media has been the world's least credible news source since 2016, research of 23 nations indicated that more than half of respondents use social media to remain current. Younger consumers are more susceptible to fake news because they utilize social media more regularly than earlier generations.
The COVID-19 pandemic attracted attention to this issue.
📌 Fact 2: distrust, mistrust, antitrust
The consequences of fake news and false practices manifest in many ways. The blurring lines between opinion and fact and an increase in the volume of social media users, the resulting influence of opinion over fact is encouraging a decline in trust in institutions. We see more severe disagreements and a lack of evidence about facts and analytical interpretations of data.
The most damaging effects might be the erosion of civil discourse, political paralysis, alienation and disengagement of individuals from civic institutions, and policy uncertainty. We’ve seen the intensification of conflicts and the suppression of conversations about social issues.
While the motivations for using fake news may vary, the propagation of distruss consistently impairs citizens' ability to engage in their country's governance and make critical decisions about their future.
📌 Fact 3: it’s complicated
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”—
The more fake news, the more unbiased news sources?
The media has been under great scrutiny and criticism, with analysts, politicians, and even journalists accusing it of bias and sensationalism — failing us. This happens a lot through coverage of presidential elections. Critics across the political spectrum have claimed that fake news and cyberattacks significantly shaped the course of events.
Unbiased news sources remain uncommon but do exist. People will disagree on what bias is, mainly because of their political beliefs. No matter where we turn, the news we read has applied bias, whether by the outlet's owner, the outright or unconscious bias of the reporter, unintentional bias from equally biased research papers, and so on.
About your business
"Fake news" is "fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent. Fake news outlets, in turn, lack the news media's editorial norms and processes for ensuring the accuracy and credibility of information. Fake news overlaps with other information disorders, such as misinformation (false or misleading information) and disinformation (false information that is purposely spread to deceive people)."
[David M. J. Lazer, et al., "The Science of Fake News," Science 09 Mar 2018: Vol. 359, Issue 6380, pp. 1094-1096.].
Organizations must increase their protection against deepfakes and new social engineering and phishing attack vectors accelerated by the rapid adoption of Generative AI.
In an ever-evolving AI landscape, avoiding misinformation is not just recommended but essential. We will see manipulations in videos, images, and audio, and the need to authenticate media with encrypted watermarking is becoming necessary.
While this year, the spotlights in the United States will be on politics, it is crucial to understand that the implications of synthetic media stretch far beyond just one sector.
No matter your industry, understanding these changes is paramount.
Resources
How to Avoid Falling for Misinformation, Fake AI Images on Social Media on the Washington Post
Developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, this game puts you in the role of the fake news monger to help you understand how fake news spreads. The idea is that the more you know about where fake news comes from, the better you'll be at avoiding it.
Presented by Ad Fontes Media, this tool rates the reliability and bias of major news sources.
How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin
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