One of the greatest social problems in the 21st century is the consumption of misinformation on social media. Misinformation is neutral on its own. It is a falsehood presented as truth (Fogarty, 2018). Nonetheless, misinformation becomes exceptionally deceitful when false conclusions are drawn from it. Sloman and Fernbach (2018) argue that humans think collaboratively, and that knowledge is fundamentally communal. Groups adopt the attitudes and opinions of those they trust within their community. These attitudes and opinions are mutually reinforced until one believes that one knows more than one actually knows. Social media platforms make it easy for one to network and widely distribute information quickly (“Social Media,” 2021). The downfall to this means misinformation is also distributed through the same mode. Attitudes and opinions are mutually reinforced hastily through these platforms leading to dangerously influential misunderstandings.
Bloggers, those who post on social media, are not subject to the same code of ethics professional journalists are (SPJ Code of Ethics, n.d.). They do not have a responsibility to their viewers to report fact-checked truth. Although individual members of the social media platform Facebook do not have a responsibility to their followers to distribute true and accurate information, Facebook does have a responsibly to protect public health. The Facebook Journalism Project was built in collaboration with other journalists to uphold ethical dissemination of information (Facebook Journalism Project, 2021). Creators have implemented a system to fact-check posted content in an effort to combat the distribution of misinformation. Facebook reports removing 18 million or more pieces of Covid-19 misinformation along with accounts that repeatedly post falsehoods (BBC News, 2021).
The Center for Disease Control reported in October 2021 that those who are unvaccinated for Covid-19 are more than 11 times more likely to die than those who are vaccinated (CDC, 2021). According to a July Huffington Post article, there are six YouTube accounts dedicated to the misinformation of the Covid-19 vaccine (de Vynck & Lerman, 2021). It is believed that these accounts are “responsible for creating more than half the anti-vaccine content shared on social media”. These accounts are easily searchable and continue to post misinformation concerning the vaccine regardless of the account moderators YouTube has set in place to mind content (2021). President Joe Biden believes misinformation is on social media “‘killing People’” (Scott & Lerman, 2021).
The U.S. faced another misinformation crises in 2020 amidst the distressing pandemic. Allegations of ubiquitous election fraud spread swiftly through the pages of Facebook as well as Twitter (Dean, 2020). Election supervisor, Wesley Wilcox, warns that misinformation poses a danger to American democracy: all it takes is one person to post false information and “‘before you know it, 25 to 50 other people have seen [it]’” (Laude, 2021). He adds that it is important for one to do one’s own research based in fact before committing to a decision.
In March of 2018, Homeland Security found misinformation to be a threat to the U.S. and published a 20-page strategy guide for combating misinformation during emergencies. Strategies include establishing partnerships with local, traditional media outlets as a means to disseminate accurate information about disasters and emergencies, utilizing the Joint Information System to coordinate public information and creating a central website to debunk corrupt information. The guide was intended to minimalize the spread of false information on social media and to mitigate tensions caused by drawing conclusions based on falsehoods. However, the strategies implemented are limited to natural disasters and public emergencies (Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology, 2018). Although it touches on politicians using natural disasters for their own political agenda, it was not designed to combat the false claims of election fraud from public officials nor the insurgency as a result of false conclusions.
On January 6th, 2021, then Vice President Mike Pence, had the ceremonial duty of certifying electoral votes from the highly contested presidential election of 2020 (“2021 United States Capitol Attack,” 2021). Former president Trump continued disseminating false claims on Twitter despite the social media conglomerate’s repeated warnings (Dean, 2020). About 12:45pm, a pipe bomb was discovered close to the Democratic National Committee headquarters (Leatherby et al., 2021). Within 20 minutes after discovering the pipe bomb, the first barriers to the Capitol were breached. By 2:13 the Senate Called a recess disrupting the democratic process and the building had to be evacuated. One minute later, insurgents reached the top of the stairs leading to the Senate entrance (2021). Over 100 members of law enforcement sustained injuries (NPR STAFF, 2021). Some received crushed spines and brain damage. Multiple assault accusations have been filed. Five people died in conjunction with the riot. Ashli Babbitt was shot by police as she stormed the building (2021). The director of The Federal Bureau of Investigations stated that the incident was a form of domestic terrorism caused by extremists (Durbin Questions FBI Director Wray on Domestic Terrorism, 2021).
Misinformation dissemination is not new a new phenomenon and was the driving force for the dangerous McCarthy era of the 1960s that destroyed many reputations (Mirkinson, 2014). Professional Journalists were the trusted gate keepers and interpreters of information (Whittaker, 2009). Journalist Edward R. Murrow was able to expose Senator Joseph McCarthy’s misinformation in a dedicated public broadcast (Mirkinson, 2014). This was a difficult and career jeopardizing responsibility to seek truth for the sake of society. Today, an undertaking to expose misinformation becomes more difficult when public officials spout false claims of fake news (Wikipedia contributors, 2021). The fake news label references any media disliked by public officials regardless of truth. Doing so undermines the public’s trust for the most reputable journalists. Additionally, people tend to expose themselves to information they find favorable and avoid information that creates cognitive dissonance (Griffin et al., 2014), which can further propagate misinformation. The public’s mistrust combined with the ability to rapidly produce and distribute misinformation through social media creates an insurmountable crisis for truth. Organizations need to continuously implement dynamic and strategic guidelines regarding misinformation on social media to keep up with ever-changing structure of society. Combatting misinformation will ultimately be a continuous and collaborative effort for truth seekers in every profession.
References
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