Internet

Tech platforms in joint effort to stem virus misinformation

The large US internet platforms have unveiled a joint effort to root out misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, while Facebook announced a $100 million program to aid small firms impacted by the crisis.

Internet

Instagram expands fact-checking globally

Instagram on Monday announced it had gone global in its fight against misinformation, expanding its third-party fact-checking network around the world.

page 9 from 10

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