In 2021, information is able to be shared at an astronomical rate. The internet has developed and 5G is becoming more mainstream. With so much information at our fingertips through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, how can we know what is true and what is merely a rumor, and how does this affect politics when it can be so easy to trap yourself in an echo chamber?
Misinformation is a very common reality with news on the internet, especially through popular social media platforms, where fact checking and providing sources isn’t required. Fake news and other types of misinformation seem to occur mostly around election seasons and inaccurate news is 70% more likely to be retweeted than the truth. But what does this mean?
The spread of misinformation has had a major impact on the divisiveness and vitriol associated with the discussion of politics online. Fake news has allowed a culture of hate to fester on platforms such as Twitter or Instagram. The rise of the misinformation on masks and COVID-19 has caused hundreds of deaths and the suffering of countless families. Despite being in an age with the most information we’ve ever had at our fingertips, misinformation still flourishes on online platforms as uncredible. Partisan organizations and people spread lies that have led to a breaking point. A major example was the riot on the capitol. During this riot, lies were spread online leading to thousands of people storming the capitol while armed and maskless, endangering countless lives. This needs to stop, but what can be done to help mitigate this plague of misinformation?
There are many things that can be done to help mitigate the spread of misinformation online, but they all require the cooperation of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. One thing Twitter has already begun doing is fact checking tweets and alerting readers if they contain fake news. This is great on paper, but a major issue remains to exist with this solution. This issue is the existence of an “Implied Truth Effect”. In this context it means that tweets not picked up by Twitter and fact checked can be assumed to be true by some readers because of a lack of a warning. A solution for this is to have a notification confirming the truth in tweets. However, Twitter cannot completely stop the spread of misinformation through this solution.
Another solution proposed by MIT Sloan Professor Dean Eckles is a plan to process, measure and analyse how social media manipulation occurs on websites such as twitter by analysing the effectiveness of different methods of spreading misinformation and creating solutions to combat each. Some of these sources include politicians, bots and misinformed citizens.
With the rise of misinformation in our modern society continuing to put thousands of peoples lives at risk, innovative and effective solutions must be developed faster to help inform people on what the truth is, and what’s merely a lie, in the ever flowing rapids of the World Wide Web.
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