How to Address Misinformation—Without Censorship
Decades of psychological research suggest that authoritarian leaders and their admirers consistently share one thing in common: they twist the truth.
To accomplish this, such leaders frequently follow a common playbook of attacking truth tellers and truth-telling institutions as a prelude to controlling information infrastructure and a broad-scale decimation of scientific programs. Authoritarian leaders also spread unambiguous disinformation with harmful consequences, such as the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen, which led to a violent and deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.