Often I am seeing what is being classified as disinformation is done so based on output which leads to it being misclassified, the producers of content are sometimes just wrong, producing misinformation based on error/ideological thinking rather than deliberate falsehood.
https://twitter.com/EmmaLBriant/status/1363636385920528384
This difference should REALLY matter to researchers and for policy... people need to be allowed to get things wrong. The response to this needs to be journalism, fact-checking, education but also listening to and addressing the real world cause of a deficit of trust.
Fuelling misinformation is the problem that there is good reason for distrust in government, politics, platforms, big corporations, media organizations -transparency and independent regulation is essential to restore trust inc influence industry firms that profit from it all.
Disinformation is a subcategory of propaganda and is not in the same world as misinformation, yet mis and dis are being treated like they are cognate issues. Wider propaganda campaigns within which 'dis' is one part, forgotten because of the focus on output over strategies.
Placing responsibility on the platforms over other actors responsible for the process, such as actors funding and producing the content makes any evaluation of this distinction - whether it is deliberate or not impossible.
Platforms certainly should be held responsible for the ability to amplify all such content. But currently working from the bottom up many are treating the issue of intent as irrelevant and the other actors responsible as too hard to factor in.
It's not good enough and it raises free speech issues (whether this is a private company space or not we all rely on these spaces and if you can't genuinely get things wrong...). It's really important to take a strong stance against those engaged in deliberate activities.
And at the moment this piece is largely ignored.
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