The Threat of Disinformation

    As a 19-year-old college student who is a user of Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and other forms of social media, I am a witness to disinformation on a daily basis. Disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation are all forms of fake news that can be found anywhere on the internet and even spread through in-person contact. Unfortunately, many people fall victim to believing in such news that is later proven to be false. Disinformation surrounds us and it is hard to tell the difference between what is true and what is false without fact-checking sources.

    Disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation all sound very similar, but what makes them different? Disinformation is when the content is false and was meant to cause harm in some way. On the other hand, misinformation is essentially user error and is when someone posts false news without realizing it isn’t true information. This shows there is no intent to harm anyone. This is most common when sharing news that isn’t true with friends and family. Lastly, malinformation is when the content being viewed is indeed true, yet it is being shared out of context and is meant to cause harm, mostly emotional harm. 

 

    A few of the most common forms of disinformation are misleading content, false connection, and fabricated content. Misleading content is when the person who posted the information leads you to believe something specific. They often do this by cropping photos, picking out specific quotes, and/or putting things in a specific order to back themselves up. Headlines and other visual images that don’t correctly back up the posted information are false connections. Specifically on Instagram, I notice posts like these often and I begin to trust the user less with providing correct statements. Lastly, fabricated content can be described as completely false information from the captions down to the images. Examples of these are deep fakes, which are digitally modified videos or audio.

    Aside from the typical definitions revolving around fake news, disinformation, for the most part, is considered dangerous to our society. It has been shown through research that disinformation can help improve memory. Most people may be thinking that is a good thing, yet it is not. The more often you see the same information over and over again, the more likely you are to remember it. That includes real and false information. When you see the same fake news time and time again you are less likely to retain the truth once told the correct information regarding the content. 

    Additionally, disinformation is shown to affect mindsets when it comes to controversial topics. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there have been tons of false claims about the vaccination and other medical procedures that have impacted what people truly believe in. Disinformation,
without fact-checking sources, can cause people to dramatically change what they have always believed in.

 

    False information is very prominent when it comes to political campaigns as well. Information is being put out as a way to push their agenda into your mind in order to receive your vote. Disinformation often directly focuses on the message being told than the messenger. For example, when a lie is being told about a president running for a future election, people are focused on the words being stated about them, not the source that provided such fake news. This happens way too often and is meant to deceive people of the truth.

    Disinformation is all over the internet, so most people believe that younger adults and teenagers are the ones to believe this false news more often, however, that is quite the opposite. Research shows that adults aged 65 and over are more likely to share fake news than the younger generations. On top of that, people who tend to be more conservative have also been more likely to share false information without realizing it. That doesn’t mean others don’t do it at all though. In fact, before college where I learned to start fact-checking my sources, I used to share information between my family and friends constantly without knowing if it was true or not. We all are guilty of sharing news every once in a while without checking if it is real or not. 

    The spread of fake news not only harms everyone individually but also within friend groups and families. Personally, I spread fake news often between my family, but not to intentionally harm them. Sometimes stating false information found online to your close relatives and friends can spark issues, especially when it comes to controversial topics that people may have different opinions about. Sharing disinformation can cause issues with the people you are closest to and may end up harming the relationship indefinitely. Disinformation, for the most part, has never been beneficial to the people it is shared with and will only cause destruction to others in the future once it is spread even further out.