In the age of false information, we all need a good BS detector. Here’s how to sort facts from harmful fiction.
Ernest Hemingway famously said that every good writer needs a built-in BS detector. But in 2025 we all need one. High levels of scientific misinformation are threatening the wellbeing of families and our society, and the problem is worsening at an alarming rate.
Artificial intelligence and social media are turbocharging the spread of misinformation dressed as science. Lies that once travelled slowly, and stayed relatively local, now surge across the globe.
When people share mistruths – for example, about vaccines, paracetamol or clean energy – the consequences are real and sometimes tragic. Preventable diseases such as measles are now returning to Australian communities because of unfounded fears about vaccines.
Misinformation is false or misleading information. Sometimes it’s spread by people who deliberately lie about the facts; this is referred to as disinformation. And sometimes it’s spread by those who just don’t know better. Either way, it is becoming more pervasive and more corrosive at all levels.
At a personal level, bad information can damage your health, lead to poor financial decisions, and undermine your ability to make informed choices. At a societal level, it erodes trust in institutions, poisons public debate, and pushes people to extremes. Ultimately, misinformation makes it harder to agree on facts, harder to work together to solve shared problems, and undermines the social cohesion and democratic resilience that Australians value.
Related Knowledge Center: Media literacy
Digital technology has irrevocably altered the media landscape. As traditional sources of credible information — gatekeepers — lose influence, jostled and often replaced by content of uncertain pedigree, many users lack the requisite skills to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, sense from nonsense. The market doesn’t reward one over the other — social media algorithms often produce better business outcomes with falsehoods — prompting some dedicated efforts to empower users with better critical-thinking tools.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors