Disinformation and Social Media

Disinformation is running rampant on the Internet today. Disinformation can be satire, but it can also be incredibly dangerous to the reader who is vulnerable to it. When disinformation is spread about a public health crisis it can cause actual negative health outcomes. For example, the various conspiracies being spread on Facebook about the Covid-19 vaccines means less people are likely to get vaccinated. Because less people are getting vaccinated due to this disinformation and the fear tactics used by the people spreading it, more people are going to end up contracting the virus. This is incredibly dangerous information to be spreading around because it can spread so rapidly and so many people will actually believe it. Because this kind of sensational news is so interesting to people, it makes it so it gets a lot of attention. When people are paying more attention to disinformation than actual reputable sources, I think that becomes a major public health and safety problem – especially when it comes to the pandemic. Some people pay way more attention to these articles on Facebook than actual reputable and fact checked sources. It seems like Facebook is having a hard time with controlling these posts and comments. In the first chapter of Reality Lost, the authors talk about how people can create their own little worlds when all they pay attention to is false and sensational claims. When this happens it can be very hard to break free from this vicious cycle where they only listen to false sources. Because they’re in their own world, they can’t see out of it to see that the information they’re consuming is false. Back to Facebook- unfortunately, I think there is not a lot that Facebook can do to stop this fake news from being spread. Short of banning anyone who posts these things, which I’m not sure would be the right move either and would probably fuel the fire of fake news. All in all, I’m not sure how to stop these problems from hurting us as a society, but it’s good to spread awareness and report false articles whenever possible.