Internet

Fact or fake? The role of knowledge neglect in misinformation

At this point we've all heard about the problems posed by misinformation in our society. From accusations that we're living in a post-truth world, to deep fakes that can make former President Obama say "Killmonger was right," ...

Internet

Facebook to warn users who 'liked' coronavirus hoaxes

Facebook will soon let you know if you shared or interacted with dangerous coronavirus misinformation on the site, the latest in a string of aggressive efforts the social media giant is taking to contain an outbreak of viral ...

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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