The internet is a vulnerable place where large amounts of data is constantly being shared and uploaded. Unfortunately, there are no appropriate check and balance procedures to filter this information. Internet nowadays is accessed by all age groups hence young kids with having fast service plans under Spectrum Internet offers can easily access the information available online and are inclined to believe it.
Misinformation vs. Disinformation
Misinformation is referred to the unintentional spread of fake news that does not deliberately aim at harming someone or their interests whereas disinformation is spread purposely having ulterior motives.
Misinformation/Disinformation Trends
People use the internet to influence others hence it can be used to gain certain benefits.
Political Narrative
People can use the internet to gain political benefits. They can launch campaigns to glorify their good deeds or campaign against their political opponents by launching online campaigns to gain popularity or to harm their opponents.
External Influence
The Internet can be used to create propaganda to harm your business opponents to gain benefits for yourself. A small mistake made by a company can be exploited by their opponents to harm them.
Paid/Unpaid Campaigns
These campaigns can either be paid or unpaid using their followers Sometimes bots and fake accounts are used to campaign especially when it is a negative one.
Crisis Driven
Sometimes such big catastrophes happen such as Covid-19 that hold great interest of a large number of people, thus users keep sharing whatever information they get regarding the topic over and over again without proper verification which causes misinformation to spread rapidly.
Click bait
This uses exaggerated, misleading headlines, images or descriptions to attract traffic to their web pages.
Imposter Content
These sites use images and data formats from real news sites to make fake news appear as real and deceive readers.
State Sponsored News
This type of news is controlled by the government to create and spread disinformation to its resident.
Misleading headlines
These stories may not be entirely false but a part of them is correct to attract users while the rest of the information available on the site can be distorted or manipulated.
Reasons for the Spread of Misinformation
There are a number of reasons why misinformation spreads so easily on the internet.
Easy Access
Anybody having a smart device and an internet connection has a fair chance to share what they please on the internet. Social media apps have made modes of communication much easier thus any information that may or may not be correct can be shared on the internet quite easily without any filters.
Absence of Check and Balance Procedures
Since the internet space is easily accessible by everyone there are no proper check and balance procedures that are essential to filter the false or misleading information shared on the internet.
Live Streaming
With real-time interactive live streaming, it has become further easier to share information according to one’s beliefs and mindsets. These live sessions may or may not be recorded thus holding someone accountable after what they have shared on their live feed in not an easy task.
Dynamic User Interface
The internet is a dynamic place where each individual is different from the others and comes from different backgrounds and races therefore what may be true for one may not be true for others.
Trends
Any information on the internet that catches the attention of a number of people goes “trending” on the internet and people, without investigating or doing their research start sharing this information further which spreads the misinformation rapidly.
Fake Accounts
Some unidentified accounts share misinformation deliberately on the internet, it is important to report such accounts to stop the spread of false news.
Precautions to Take on the Internet
We must certain precautions while accessing the internet
Don’t Believe Everything You See
With all sorts of information true and false being shared on the internet, we must not believe everything we see on the internet and should first do our research before believing or spreading a piece of news further.
Reporting
If you find a piece of information to be false you must report it to the admin of the application being used to spread it so that they may take it down.
Tolerance
Since we are interacting with a large number of people coming from different ethnicities and beliefs, we must be tolerant of each other’s beliefs and views.
Sharing
Avoid sharing any controversial piece of information to help make internet a better place.