How Does Misinformation Spread Online?

Psychology TodayDecember 06,2018Mike Wood


Social media has reshaped how we consume news. A study by the Pew Research Center last year  found that two-thirds of Americans reported getting their news from social media.

As most of us probably know, this is a double-edged sword. Obviously, it’s good to have diverse sources of news, and information can spread much faster on social media than it can through traditional top-down media like television or newspapers — this is part of the reason for the popularity of new media! The problem is that information on social media doesn’t have to be vetted, investigated, or confirmed in order to spread, and this leads to misinformation and unsubstantiated rumor spreading like wildfire online. In the past few years, an online misinformation ecosystem  has developed: a large, decentralized web of “news” sources that plagiarise, jump to unwarranted conclusions, fail to vet sources adequately, or simply fabricate information.

This ecosystem consists of a variety of people and organisations that cultivate large followings on social media. Through sharing and cross-promotion, they amplify and spread bits of information that fit their particular worldview without fact-checking or basic due diligence. The actors that engage in this kind of practice create a massive, decentralized web of misinformation, one that traditional sources of news are hard-pressed to counteract. In a recent paper , I examined the spread of conspiracy theories about the Zika virus on Twitter. These conspiracy theories, popular around the time of the 2015-16 outbreak in Latin America, mostly alleged that the microcephaly cases attributed to the virus were really caused by something else, and that Zika was essentially being scapegoated in a coverup by governments, NGOs, and the pharmaceutical industry. Worryingly, these theories tended to place the blame on things like vaccines, pesticides, and genetically modified sterile mosquitoes, all of which are important weapons in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases like Zika. These were not just idle rumours, but actively harmful misinformation.


The graph presented here shows the pattern made by tens of thousands of tweets and retweets about the conspiracy theories: individual dots (some of which are difficult to see at this scale) are accounts, and the lines between the dots represent one account retweeting another. The lines and dots are coloured according to whether the accounts mostly advocated or debunked the conspiracy theories. The red network represents the activity of the “misinformation ecosystem” on Zika: a massive (and massively interconnected) conglomeration of click-generating nonsense, with rumors about Zika spreading through it like the virus itself. The blue network represents the efforts of Twitter users to debunk the rumours. It’s more centralised — it’s organised around fact-checkers like PolitiFact — and it’s much smaller. This is a dramatic illustration of the old saying that a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its boots on.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen a variation of this happen first-hand. My co-author Karen Douglas and I published an article describing a study on the psychology of 9/11 conspiracy theories  back in 2013. It didn't see much discussion until a website picked it up and ran with a misinterpretation of the study that flattered a certain audience
This rumor started tearing around the Internet despite our efforts to contain it. We posted rebuttals and refutations, explaining how this conclusion was based on a misreading of the article, but it didn’t do much to stem the tide. Five years later, that misinterpretation of this old article is still bouncing around the misinformation ecosystem.

These are just two examples — there are new rumors every day, and the online rumour mill grinds on. Social media companies are increasingly aware of this problem, and are taking steps to curb the spread of misinformation. In the meantime, our best defense is to educate ourselves about media, and to get into the habit of thinking critically and carefully, even — or especially — about stories that we desperately want to believe.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more