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Disinformation and Fake News

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Handbook of Security Science

Abstract

Democracy is built on the underlying public trust in its institutions and media. This trust is potentially undermined and damaged by targeted disinformation campaigns. Especially online and social media have made it possible to manipulate the masses via disinformation and fake news at an unprecedented scale, which weaken or threaten political as well as state institutions. These organizations, therefore, require improved methods and tools for evaluating ever-increasing volumes of digital media in terms of identification, verification, and correction of sources. Based on these requirements, this chapter will discuss multidisciplinary aspects and counterstrategies of social sciences, law, and computer science, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) – but also concerning perceived current (ethical) risks – during the process of building AI-driven solutions toward a safe and secure digital infrastructure in the battle against misinformation, fake news, and their impact on democracy. Parts of the chapter use findings from a pertinent European (Austrian) security research grant project as examples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for E-Governance and Administration, Center for Infrastructural Security, Danube University Krems, Krems, Austria

    Walter Seboeck & Bettina Biron

  2. Research Institute AG & Co KG, Vienna, Austria

    Heidi Scheichenbauer, Christof Tschohl & Lisa Seidl

  3. Department for E-Governance and Administration, Center for E-Governance, Danube University Krems, Krems, Austria

    Thomas J. Lampoltshammer

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  1. Walter Seboeck
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  2. Bettina Biron
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  3. Thomas J. Lampoltshammer
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  4. Heidi Scheichenbauer
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  5. Christof Tschohl
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  6. Lisa Seidl
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Correspondence to Walter Seboeck .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Anthony J. Masys

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  1. The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Middletown, PA, USA

    Alexander Siedschlag Ph.D., M.A.

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Seboeck, W., Biron, B., Lampoltshammer, T.J., Scheichenbauer, H., Tschohl, C., Seidl, L. (2022). Disinformation and Fake News. In: Masys, A.J. (eds) Handbook of Security Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51761-2_3-1

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