Fake News and Disinformation

Irish Times; Mar 9th 2020; Dr. Muiris Houston

“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an
‘infodemic’. Fake news spreads faster and more easily
than this virus, and is just as dangerous.” – WHO
director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
February 2020.
“From the outset of the novel coronavirus epidemic,
the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been
aware it was dealing with two contagions: one the
physical spread of the microbe; and the other the
spread of rumours and misinformation about the
outbreak.” Dr. Muiris Houston
Irish Times; Mar 9th 2020, Dr. Muiris Houston
The director-general is forthright: “At WHO, we’re not
just battling the virus; we’re also battling the trolls and
conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and
undermine the outbreak response,” he says.
“There is more false health news out there than there is
in any other category. More than 60 per cent of adults
source their news online. The Rand Corporation, a non-
profit, non-partisan research organisation, says a
combination of the 24-hour news cycle and social
media was one of the principal drivers of what it calls
“truth decay”. Dr. Muiris Houston
Irish Times; October 21st, 2023
The leadership of the Green Party has argued that
widespread trolling on social media, and the
dissemination of fake news, conspiracy theories, and
disinformation, now pose a threat to Irish democracy.
Citing in particular immigration, refugees, the housing
crisis and climate change.
“It is a threat to our democracy as we are bombarded
with disinformation, fake news and conspiracy
theories.” Eamonn Ryan, Green Party leader
Catherine Martin, the Minister for Media, stated she is
working on a national counter-disinformation strategy.
Fake news and Alternative facts
Misinformation has a long and well documented
history
Procopius, the Byzantine historian of the sixth
century AD churned out dubious information, known
as Anecdota – today we have ‘anecdotes’ or a story
may be anecdotal
Pietro Aretino tried to manipulate a papal election of
1522 by pasting satire on the Pasquino near the Piazza
Navona in Rome.
Fake news and Alternative facts
In the 1600’s the ‘canard’ became commonplace on
the streets of Paris. A canard was a printed sheet of
‘fake news’ designed to appeal to the credulous

The Canard enchainé, a Parisian journal that

specializes in political scoops, evokes this tradition in
its title, which could be translated figuratively as “No
Fake News.”
Online disinformation
Online disinformation and fake news have deep-
seated roots in the digital age.

While propaganda and misinformation have existed

throughout history, the digital revolution amplified
their reach and speed.

The origins of these threats can be attributed to

several factors:
Online disinformation
The Proliferation of Social Media:

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter,

and YouTube, have become breeding grounds for
disinformation.

They offer a low-barrier entry for anyone to create

and disseminate content, often without the
accountability found in traditional media.
Online disinformation
Algorithmic Filter Bubbles:

Social media algorithms tend to show users content

that aligns with their existing beliefs and preferences.

This creates filter bubbles, where individuals are

exposed to information that reinforces their existing
views, making them more susceptible to false
narratives.
Online disinformation
Ease of Content Creation:

Digital tools make it easy to create realistic-looking

fake news stories, deepfakes, and manipulated
images, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
What is ‘fake news’ today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQdzVbQlaU
What is ‘fake news’?
Fake news is any information that is deliberately
meant to be wholly or largely false or misleading
Motivations for creating fake news include financial
gain – by getting people to click on sites so they’re
exposed to advertising
Or to influence people to make political choices such
as voting in elections for or against a particular
candidate
Serious concern has been expressed about the
influence of ‘fake news’ on the U.S. presidential
election and the Brexit vote in U.K., both in 2016
What is ‘fake news’?
The rise of the internet and social media has
transformed the way we consume and share
information,
bringing unprecedented opportunities for
communication, but also exposing us to a growing
menace –
online disinformation and fake news.
In today's digital information age, these threats have
the potential to destabilize democracies, manipulate
public opinion, and sow discord.
Why the concern?
To survive, democracy needs a minimum of shared
truth.
The storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on 6
January 2021, showed us just how dangerous it is when
millions of citizens are led to deny an important,
carefully verified fact – namely, who won an election.
To prosper, democracy needs a certain kind of “public
sphere”, one in which citizens and their representatives
engage in vigorous argument/debate/discussion on the
basis of shared facts.
Why the concern?
Restoring a kind of “public sphere” is now a central
task for the renewal of liberal democracy. It has been
called the ‘fact fightback’.
The basic idea comes to us from the very beginnings
of democracy, 2,500 years ago.
The citizens of ancient Athens gathered in an open air
debating place in the centre – the original “public
square”.
After facts and arguments had been presented and
debated, a policy was put to a vote.
There has been no ‘digital public square’ to replace it!
Social media and misinformation
Facebook is increasingly seen as a major ‘culprit’ in
the dissemination of ‘fake news’ and it is garnering
greater attention and criticism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgbF9HLdPc0&a
b_channel=CBSSundayMorning
3rd October, 2021.
Facebook and misinformation
Facebook is seen as by far the worst perpetrator when
it comes to spreading fake news. Worse than Google.
Worse than Twitter. And worse than webmail
providers such as AOL, Yahoo!, and Gmail. (Forbes;
2020)
A new study of user behavior on Facebook around the
2020 election is likely to bolster critics’ long-standing
arguments that the company’s algorithms fuel the
spread of misinformation over more trustworthy
sources. (Washington Post; Sept 2021)
Facebook and misinformation
The forthcoming peer-reviewed study by researchers
at New York University and the Université Grenoble
Alpes in France has found that from August 2020 to
January 2021, news publishers known for putting out
misinformation got six times the amount of likes,
shares, and interactions on the platform as did
trustworthy news sources, such as CNN or the World
Health Organization.
Facebook’s response
Facebook’s website:
“We know people want to see accurate information
on Facebook – and so do we.”
“False news is harmful to our community, it makes
the world less informed, and it erodes trust. It's not a
new phenomenon, and all of us — tech companies,
media companies, newsrooms, teachers — have a
responsibility to do our part in addressing it.”
“At Facebook, we're working to fight the spread of
false news in three key areas:
Facebook’s response
disrupting economic incentives because most false
news is financially motivated;
building new products to curb the spread of false
news; and
helping people make more informed
decisions when they encounter false news.

Apr 7, 2017 (!!!) – Nothing posted since.
Facebook spokesperson avoiding the question!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0SQv2zs9hQ
Facebook’s response
According to a Pew Research study from January 2021,
more than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86 percent) said
they get their news from a smartphone. It is easy to
see why misinformation continues to spread.
We may demand that the social media platforms crack
down on misinformation, there is little likelihood that
Facebook, Twitter or YouTube will ever stamp it out.
It would take full-time checking of virtually all
content, but then there is also the fact that platforms
depend on continued use.
Simply put, disinformation gets clicks.
Social media and disinformation
Social media as a driver of disinformation: 6 points
1) Media ‘democratisation’ and the distribution of
fake news:
Ironically, social media has ended up hurting our
democracies for the very reason it was once greeted
with enthusiasm
An unregulated environment means that anyone can
distribute inaccurate, unverified, untrue ‘news’ as fact
and it will be consumed by potentially millions of
people
Social media and disinformation
2) Audience fragmentation:

Social media has contributed to the fragmentation of

audience attention.

As the explosion in online media sources give people

more and more choices of where to put their
attention, readers and viewers have increasingly
gravitated to the specific sources and stories that
appeal to their narrow interests and worldview
Social media and disinformation
3) The all-powerful algorithm and the invention
of filter bubbles:

The algorithms driving major social networks take

note of what we like, and what we avoid.

Facebook’s algorithm shows us the kind of content it

knows we like; Twitter, YouTube and every other
social platform do the same thing.
Social media and disinformation
4) Shortening attention spans:
Social media has contributed to the shortening of our
attention spans.

There is little doubt that digital distraction has made

it harder and harder for people to pay sustained
attention to long-form content.

As attention spans get shorter, news stories have to

get simpler, even though our political, economic and
social challenges are only getting more complex.
Social media and disinformation
5) The privileging of provocation:

A balanced story is all well and good, but if you really

want to explode on Facebook, write a strongly
opinionated article with a polarizing headline.

This creates incentives to commission or create

commentary (or biased reporting) rather than
accurate and objective reporting.
Social media and disinformation
6) Rise of social media ‘memes’:
Fake news doesn’t just come in the form of text.
Images — like those ubiquitous social media memes —
can be a powerful way of transmitting false
information
According to Social Fresh, “a meme is a
categorization of a cultural trend or truth, a unit for
communicating and collectively sharing cultural ideas
through words, symbols and pictures.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO4_-5KNvEY
Social media as the ‘cure’
4 points -
1) Social verification:
Social verification—including media consumers in
confirming the veracity of accurate stories, or refuting
false ones — is a key tactic for tackling
misinformation.
 In its simplest form, you see social verification all the
time on social networks: whenever you see a friend
backing up (or debunking) a Facebook post by adding
a credible link in the comment thread, that’s social
verification
Social media as a ‘cure’
2) Supporting media and digital literacy:
We can’t lay all the blame for misinformation at the
doors of social media: it’s also a reflection on
generally low levels of media literacy. Many people
just don’t know how to judge the accuracy of what
they watch, read or hear.
There are initiatives supporting digital literacy,
particularly among young people, and they’re using
social tools to do it – also other method
 Fake News, Misinformation, Disinformation & How to Spot It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhkGVmmVaO
M
Social media as a ‘cure’ for misinfo
3) Fact checking tools:
If social media is the context in which many media
consumers encounter fake news, then it can also be
the context in which inaccuracies may be quickly
corrected.
These are still in development:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3VycpUTeYto&ab_channel=CentreforInternational
GovernanceInnovation
Social media as ‘cure’
4) Algorithms:

Again, in very early stages of development but the

same algorithms could be used to counter fake news
by elimination or reduction – Tim Berners-Lee has
launched “Contract for the Web”
“A global plan of action to make our online world safe
and empowering for everyone”
https://contractfortheweb.org/
Ireland and Fake News
Brexit dominated news coverage in Ireland, the EU
country most likely to be affected by the terms of the
UK’s withdrawal.
 At the same time the government continues to
examine the role of platforms in disseminating
misinformation and overt political advertising
Ireland went to the polls twice in 2018, first with a
referendum on abortion in May and then a
presidential election.
Ireland and Fake News
The referendum was preceded by a ‘citizen assembly’
which debated the issue and ensured factual
information was available for voters.
 Nonetheless, issues arose particularly concerning
political advertising on Facebook.
A voluntary group, the Transparent Referendum
Initiative, used open-source software supplied by
Who Targets Me to analyse messages which were
being promoted to voters.
 It discovered that some adverts from outside Ireland
were appearing in people’s news feeds
Ireland and Fake News
Partly as a result of this, both Facebook and Google –
whose European HQs are based in Dublin –
announced moves to put a halt to political advertising
during the course of the campaign. (Reuters Digital
News report 2019)
The report revealed that 61% of Irish media
consumers are concerned about what is real and what
is fake on the internet.
The Transparent Referendum Initiative:
http://tref.ie/
Video on Homepage
Ireland and Fake News

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/press-centre/press-
releases/20191025-international-grand-committee-on-
disinformation-and-fake-news-dublin-ireland-
wednesday-6th-and-thursday-7th-november-2019/
Be Media Smart!
Some (2) initiatives:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/1108/1009433-
fake_news_dcu/
https://www.bemediasmart.ie/about
Facebook’s fight against Fake News (?!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AvC0nX_Vr2s&ab_channel=CNBC
U.S. Presidential Election 2020 Fake News/Misinfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ng2ZAWOE1wE&ab_channel=BOOM