From fake news to foil hats

IN THE months leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump, disinformation campaigns were rampant throughout social media. While the content of these posts varied, many were used to promote far-right hyper-partisan press, conspiracy theories, and disinformation. In taking advantage of easily accessible and widely available social media, these problematic actors could spread their message to a large number of people in a short amount of time.

Foreign interference was another feature of the presidential election; with some politically charged organisations hacking email servers and spreading false information through social media. Intelligence agencies across the United States and Europe concluded that Russian hackers worked to intensify political divisions and weaken American democracy. While the depths of their involvement are vast, and still somewhat unknown, it highlights the weaponization of journalism and media for political gain.

As ambiguity remains about the role disinformation played in the 2016 U.S. election, the current COVID-19 pandemic allows researchers to study its effects in real-time.

Many efforts to monitor disinformation are taking place on Twitter and YouTube. Up to 15,000 disinformation channels have been deleted for containing intentionally misleading information about the virus. In the current COVID-19 era, false health advice, conspiracy theories, and meddling from foreign actors are cited as being the biggest contributors to this outpour of disinformation. The following graph from Our World in Data helps illustrate the number of people using social media platforms.

Currently, 3.4 million social media accounts have been suspected of spreading false information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy theories have played an increasingly important role in the spread of disinformation: They are defined as unverifiable truths that aim to make sense of a chaotic experience.

Conspiracy Theories

Considering that information about the virus was difficult to access in the beginning months of 2020, since COVID-19 was still developing, researchers have argued that conspiracy theories arise when information about an issue is low. Some of the current COVID-19 conspiracies revolve around the pandemic being a hoax perpetrated by the government, a form of bio-warfare released from China, and a result of fifth-generation wireless (5g) network towers.

A recent study tracked conversations about the origins of COVID-19 through traditional and social media. Their research highlighted the change in outputs of conspiracy theories between January and March 2020. Before the pandemic hit the United States, social media posts regarding the virus were not centralised on hoaxes perpetrated by the government, bio-warfare, and 5g towers; most social media users were researching the virus in a broader sense. When the pandemic reached the United States, research into the virus transformed into conspiracy and rumours. It is conceivable, that when faced with a national health crisis and times of intense anxiety, these conspiracy theories flourished as more people looked for answers.

As a researcher who has studied disinformation and conspiracy theories during COVID-19 in-depth, I’ve found that many of the conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns on social media are purposefully disguised as professional material. This discovery helps illustrate why false information may be spreading within social networks: If people are unable to discern between fact and fiction, truth or lies, unknowing social media users may be contributing to problematic agendas. These posts are generally camouflaged, but with slight investigating and personal fact-checking, can be revealed as false.

These investigations are useful in predicting the future of user behaviour on social media. In understanding how these disinformation factories are operating, social media users can better protect themselves from harmful information. I suggest, however, that much of these measures should be made by media giants. After all, it is their platform that is continuing the spread of false information and violence.