Blog 9: Social Media and Moderation

Misinformation in social media

Case Study:
Censorship of Misinformation and Freedom of Speech on Social Media

Case Study Summary

This case study discusses misinformation and how censorship isn’t necessarily a perfect option. Knowledge is a social process that makes individuals rely on institutions and structures. It states how a lot of the problems with misinformation don’t stem from technology, but are an effect of the gradual distrust in institutions that used to bring reliable information.

Discussion Questions

1. This case study discusses several examples in which misinformation appears to be worse now than it was in the past (e.g., vaccine skepticism and election conspiracies). Can you think of any other examples? How confident are you that this misinformation really is worse now?

One example my mind jumps to is surrounding politics, specifically with immigrants. There is a lot of fabrication of statistics that are used to support someone’s political party. This type of misinformation greatly impacts the public’s perception of concepts like immigration, which is a big problem. Social media amplifies the emotional, generalized stories, which negatively affect people’s opinions on immigrants. Misinformation such as “immigrants take jobs from natives” and “they commit more crime” are bad for public opinion, and impact the political discourse that is taken. I’m not super confident that misinformation is worse now, it is just different than before, with things like social media.

2. This case study discusses several institutions that help (or helped) with the production and dissemination of reliable information. What are some other institutions that do this, and are these institutions working well in the 21st century?

An institution that helps with reliable information are Universities, and their publications of scholarly works. Universities such as liberal arts colleges teach students important critical thinking skills, and give them a well-rounded education. They also publish scholarly works that are peer reviewed and offer reliable and trustworthy information. These institutions aren’t working the best in the 21st century, due to political reasons. Academic publishing is heavily impacted by funding changes, with strict criteria being added that is heavily political. An example is research projects not getting published due to keywords like “trans”, “pregnant person”, and other terms that relate to marginalized communities. This censorship impacts what the public sees and can help lead to misinformation, with less diverse media.

5. What things can you truly know by yourself, without relying on the trustworthiness of any other people and/or institutions?

Things like universal truths, and also things that you personally experience. For example, misinformation and generalizations about things like gender and sexuality, where someone who knows in their mind how they feel is told that their identity was a choice. Other things like logic which you can hold independent from society, or perceptions of the world around you are examples.

6. What strategies can you employ to avoid falling for misinformation online?

Fact check, especially with multiple sources. Knowing your credible sources and looking at people’s sources is very revealing. Thinking about the effect it could have if it’s misinformation is also helpful. Understanding why misinformation might be beneficial to certain groups is a key part in recognizing the likelihood of it being misleading or false. Asking yourself why something would be misinformation and whom it benefits is beneficial to separate your beliefs from what is presented to you.

My Discussion Question

Should misinformation be used in the case of malinformation, such as repairing public trust when something was meant to be private?

Misinformation becomes disinformation when it is used to cause harm, but I wonder if it is always harmful if it’s used to protect people. Examples could be fear mongering and using misinformation to stop people from worrying and allowing officials to have time before releasing information to the public.

Reflection

This case study gave me insight into how misinformation is spread and why it is easier for people to believe things nowadays. The social structures that we used to have for reliable information are being broken down and not providing help to the vast amount of misinformation being spread. I think that it is important to foster better protocol for people to use whenever interacting with anything online. This would help people be more curious and not be as trusting of new information. If more people truly grapple with the information they are seeing, and only spread information that they confirmed themselves, we will have less misinformation in society.