Disinformation
#Burst the Bubble
#BurstTheBubble: Disinformation Roadmap
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Want to know what Disinformation is? Start here.
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Want to see the IDH's submission to
Stanford's disinformation fighting initiative?
That's here.
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IDH TV and IDH Podcast episodes on disinformation:
Coming soon (2022).
What is Disinformation?
Disinformation is false news, designed to misinform. That's a simple definition for a complex problem.
Who should decide whether news
is "false" or "designed to misinform?"
Increasingly that job is being trusted to algorithms.
But algorithms struggle to make judgments about facts.
If a government agency classifies the January 6th protest
at the U.S. Capitol as a "riot,"
while a politician describes it as a "protest,"
is either characterization "false news"
which should be censured.
Algorithms also struggle with context. Is a story that is obviously false meant to be a parody or a satire or is it just false? Should a story from The Onion be censored because an algorithm doesn't get the joke?
Filter bubbles exacerbate the dangers of disinformation. If a person is exposed to too many self-reinforcing stories without being presented contrary information, they will become confused as to what is truth and what is fiction.