Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News

Abstract

Rampant misinformation and disinformation on social media culminated in the storming of Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 by pro-Trump supporters. On March 25, 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared before Congress to face criticism about their handling of misinformation and online extremism (1).

“Perhaps there is a simple answer – not an easy answer but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”

– President Ronald Reagan (October 1964)

“I play to people’s fantasies. … People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole.”

– President Donald Trump (November 1987)

“There’s an old economic principle, that bad money drives out good. One thing that worries me is that bad information is driving out good.”

– Professor Frank Farley (March 2012)

“The loudest voices should be particularly careful not to rush to conclusions.”

– U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett (March 2012)

“Facts have been replaced by opinions. Information has been replaced by entertainment. Reporters have become stenographers. I can’t be the only one who’s sick of what passes for the news today.”

– Superman Clark Kent (October 2012)

“The Internet is so full of junk and not-researched material.”

– Historian David Wallechinsky (April 2014)

“For me having to explain every day that I am not a prostitute is a daily complication. I am in favor of freedom of expression, but not the kind of freedom of expression built on lies.”

– Argentine model María Belén Rodríguez (May 2014)

“I’m quitting Facebook. Not comfortable with the flood of false information that’s allowed in its political advertising.”

– American Author Stephen King (January 2020)

“At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement – the longer the better – and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible.”

– Apple CEO Tim Cook (January 2021)

“Social media has become, in many ways, the key amplifier to domestic violent extremism just as it has for malign foreign influence. The same things that attract people to it for good reasons are also capable of causing all kinds of harms that we are entrusted with trying to protect the American people against.”

– FBI director Christopher Wray (March 2021)

“My hope is that Facebook, instead of taking it personally, that somehow I’m saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation, the outrageous misinformation about the vaccine. That’s what I meant.”

– President Joe Biden (July 2021)

“Facebook chooses what information billions of people see, shaping their perception of reality. Even those who don’t use Facebook are impacted by the radicalization of people who do.”

– Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen (October 2021)

“Information is power. Disinformation is abuse of power.”

– Newton Lee