The war on disinformation is a losing battle
How the systems that fight misinformation and disinformation became misconstrued and dismantled
As he called the House Judiciary Committee into session on a cold and snowy February day in Washington, DC, Chairman Jim Jordan was ready to take a victory lap. American free speech had been critically threatened, and now it was saved — in large part thanks to him and his committee.
“What a difference a few years make,” the Republican congressman for Ohio’s 4th district told those present. “Four years ago, President Trump was banned from all platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Today, he has his own platform. He’s back on all the others. And of course, he’s president of the United States.”
Donald Trump was expelled from the major social …
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.
Related Knowledge Center: Trust in news media
In ancient media times, when newspapers made money and three network news behemoths roamed the land, a vast majority of Americans trusted what they saw on television and read in the paper. No more: The slide in trust that began in the 1970s continues to this day, with fewer and fewer people believing what they find in the news cacophony.