Disinformation

Disinformation can be defined in many ways...

• "false information which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power" 

• "false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by planting rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure truth" 

Whether you choose read one definition over the other, they basically mean the same thing. I decided to choose Disinformation as my key word to research on, because I feel like we live in a time where we are constantly trying to determine whether news is wrong by human error, or deliberately false to push a certain narrative out. Overall, I believe that disinformation is extremely dangerous to the world and could be the death of us, if we don't have our heads screwed on right. A great example would be Coronavirus. 

The other day, during a White House Press Conference, President Trump spoke about experiments that the CDC were doing on Disinfectants and COVID-19. The President spoke about a possible disinfectant to "clean out" the virus in minutes. It was beyond clear that he was speaking in regards to a government experiment, but the President was taken way out of context. 

Business Insider: Transcript

This story made headlines, and as the story got bigger, the story got more twisted. I find this to be a great example of Disinformation, because the other day, my girlfriend told me that Trump is an idiot, but I searched for the full, original video and it was beyond clear that he wasn't telling people to go home and consume disinfectants. However, my girlfriend showed me the story on Snapchat and it was very twisted. It showed the President talking about disinfectants using soundbites rather than showing the entire clip. I recommend any that is reading this, to go watch the actual press conference. 

Although there are many bad sides to Disinformation, I would like to touch on the possibility of disinformation having a positive affect. A great example would be using disinformation in war or in sports. In war, you could create fake attacks planned out on paper and have your enemy see it on purpose, so you then can plan around your enemy coming after you. It allows you to trap your enemy in war or even in sports. 

Now that I have done research on Disinformation, it makes me wonder who's most vulnerable? I came to the conclusion that people who are not involved on social media nor pay attention closely to the news are the ones that are most vulnerable because the further away you are from being involved the more you are to believe any type of news. People who are constantly reading up on news, and checking their sources will be able to detect fake or disinformation better than most people. 

I recommend watching the video below, which shows a great example of disinformation:

Defending Disinformation