Internet

Why false news snowballs on social media

The spread of misinformation on social media is a pressing societal problem that tech companies and policymakers continue to grapple with, yet those who study this issue still don't have a deep understanding of why and how ...

Internet

YouTube cracks down on anti-vaccine misinformation

YouTube announced Wednesday it would remove videos and some high-profile users that falsely claim approved vaccines are dangerous, as social networks seek to crack down on health misinformation around Covid-19 and other diseases.

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Misinformation

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally. It is distinguished from disinformation by motive in that misinformation is simply erroneous, while disinformation, in contrast, is intended to mislead.

Adam Makkai proposes the distinction between misinformation and disinformation to be a defining characteristic of idioms in the English language. An utterance is only idiomatic if it involves disinformation, where the listener can decode the utterance in a logical, and lexically correct, yet erroneous way. Where the listener simply decodes the lexemes incorrectly, the utterance is simply misinformation, and not idiomatic.

Damian Thompson defines counterknowledge as "misinformation packaged to look like fact." Using the definition above, this may refer to disinformation, as the motive is deliberate and often pecuniary.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA