Worries about misinformation are everywhere these days. “Fake news” and “post-truth” have become household terms. In 2021, President Biden accused social media platforms of “killing people” by not doing enough to stop misinformation about COVID-19. And the World Economic Forum earlier this year listed “misinformation and disinformation” as the biggest short-term risk facing the world, ahead of war or extreme weather.
But what even is misinformation? How do scientists define it and how do they study it? And what are they learning?
Researchers studying the issue face many challenges: The problem is too complex to be broken down easily, for one; data is increasingly hard to come by; and the problem is global, but the research is not.
On top of that, there is politics: Researchers have been attacked for their work. And there is history, too: From rumor research during World War II to attempts to "inoculate" people against persuasion during the Cold War era.
In this project, journalist Kai Kupferschmidt explores the challenges researchers are grappling with as they try to understand how and why misinformation spreads and what to do about it.
