april fools is actually a perfect day to talk about the difference between disinformation and misinformation because the internet is going to be absolutely rampant with it today. so stick with me here and i’ll break it down
at its most baseline definition, disinformation refers to intentionally false information that’s shared in order to lead others astray. for example if you pranked your followers today with a fake announcement of some kind, that would be disinformation
conversely, misinformation has nothing to do with intent. it's simply focused on the sharing of false information. an example of this would be someone thinking the aforementioned prank announcement was real and retweeting it in good faith
online discourse tends to use these two terms interchangeably and mistakenly label all misinformation as disinformation. this type of “everyone is corrupt” mindset can greatly influence conspiratorial thinking which, ironically, further adds to sharing of misinformation in itself
like any modern digital conundrum this topic is endlessly complex and nuanced, and as long as humans share information with each other, misinformation and disinformation will continue to be prevalent
but the least we can do as a society is have the wherewithal to understand the differences of frequently mentioned terms and use critical thinking to ensure we aren’t adding to the chaos. unless it’s april fools day i guess
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