Social Media Smackdown on Suspicious Sources

From false headlines to doctored photos and videos, fake news is found in many forms. In particular, social media companies suffer from a glut of fake news originating from disinformation.

Misinformation and disinformation are both, at their core, incorrect information. However, the impetus for sharing the content and those who share it are very different. Misinformation refers to an “honest mistake,” like when an article written by a generally trustworthy media source includes an error that spreads organically. Disinformation, by contrast, is deliberately wrong and spread purposefully to create confusion and circulate lies.

Disinformation on social media platforms can be incredibly dangerous. In 2018 and 2019, the Oxford Internet Institute researched 70 countries around the world that use coordinated social media manipulation to sway their populations' beliefs, including China and Russia. In this count are authoritarian regimes such as Syria and North Korea who utilize these tools to suppress rights such as free speech and to scare off opposition voices.

Thankfully, social media companies are under amplified scrutiny for their maladministration of hate speech and fake news on their platforms. These platforms are not just a blank sheet of paper on which anyone can write anything. Social media companies have now evolved into wardens of content, and they must deal with fake news and hate speech.

Originally, social media companies assumed no liability over the content being published on their respective platforms. But recently, several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, have promised to clamp down on misleading information. They have since set up a mix of automated and human-driven editorial processes to promote or filter out certain types of content. However, this is not enough to deal with the sheer amount of disinformation flooding into social media platforms.

So what can we do to clean out the disinformation and reshape the social media environment in this new information era?

Government interference can make a considerable impact on the disinformation spread through social media and other media sources. In the United States, the Census Bureau formed a new “Trust & Safety Team” of agency staffers who will monitor social media and other platforms for false information regarding the 2020 census. They plan to respond swiftly to inaccuracies when needed. Team is working with external platforms and social media platforms as well as cybersecurity officials in curbing disinformation. They are encouraging the public to report anything suspicious to rumors@census.gov.

Providing alternative information alongside fake content is another approach to clean out disinformation in social media. Through this method, users are exposed to correct information. For example, YouTube encourages users to click on links with verified and vetted information that would debunk the misguided claims made in false content.

However, we must also contribute individually to solving this problem. Getting to know your own social media feed and algorithm can help you curb disinformation since disinformation targets us based on our online behavior and biases. Nearly all the content people see on social media is chosen not by humans. but rather by computer programs using massive quantities of data about each user to deliver engaging or relevant content. Therefore, we see only information that an algorithm thinks we want to consume, which can be biased and distorted. If we examine and alter our feeds, we can prevent the spread of disinformation.

In the end, the solution for fake news will involve each of us taking up our responsibilities as global internet users. Fact-check before you share! Take the extra few seconds to look over the source or go read the article in full. Do your part to promote a more informed democracy.