Bots, bias, and bunk: How can you tell what's real on the net?
Liars, cranks, and con artists have always been with us. It’s just that nowadays their reach has gone from the local pub to the globe.
Take, for example, when X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, introduced a new feature, “About this account,” which includes information about a person’s location. The idea was to make it easier to spot bots.
It was successful. Way too successful for the taste of some, as it quickly became apparent that many Donald Trump-touting troll accounts, such as MAGA NATION, TRUMP_ARMY_, and CharlieK_news, for all their American-flag waving, are from non-US locations. They and their ilk are bot-driven propaganda sites.
Thinking of X’s brother service, the AI system Grok, its training includes such lies as former first lady Michelle Obama is a man and COVID-19 vaccines caused millions of unexplained deaths. Grok owner Elon Musk has also ordered its answers to reflect his opinions. For instance, the Brookings Institution reported that when an X user asked Grok to identify “the biggest threat to Western civilization,” it responded with “misinformation and disinformation.” Unhappy with this answer, Musk responded: “Sorry for this idiotic response. Will fix it in the morning.” The next day, he released a new version of Grok that responded with “sub-replacement fertility rates” to the same question. This is a popular right-wing talking point.
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
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: Social media
Social media platforms are the source of news for millions of people — and they have a fraught and ever-shifting relationship with the enterprises that provide that news.
The TikTok ban | The Meta-FTC trial