Understanding Information Disorder
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FIRST DRAFT'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO Understanding Information Disorder October 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 5 CHAPTER 1 Satire or parody 13 CHAPTER 2 False connection 19 CHAPTER 3 Misleading content 23 CHAPTER 4 False context 27 CHAPTER 5 Imposter content 33 CHAPTER 6 Manipulated content 45 CHAPTER 7 Fabricated content 51 Conclusion 56 2 INFORMATION DISORDER 3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Claire Wardle currently leads the strategic direction and research for First Draft. In 2017 she co-authored the seminal report — Information Disorder: An interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy for the Council of Europe1. Previous to that she was a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School, the Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, head of social media for the United Nations Refugee Agency. She was also the project lead for the Introduction BBC Academy in 2009, where she designed a comprehensive training program for social media verification for BBC News, that was rolled out across the organization. She holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. 5 WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF INFORMATION DISORDER The failure of the term to capture our new reality is one reason not to use the term ‘fake news’. The The promise of the digital age encouraged us to believe other, more powerful reason, is because of the way that only positive changes would come when we lived it has been used by politicians around the world to in hyper-connected communities able to access any discredit and attack professional journalism. The information we needed with a click or a swipe. But term is now almost meaningless with audiences this idealised vision has been swiftly replaced by a increasingly connecting it with established news recognition that our information ecosystem is now outlets such as CNN and the BBC. Words matter dangerously polluted and is dividing rather than and for that reason, when journalists use ‘fake connecting us. news’ in their reporting, they are giving legitimacy to an unhelpful and increasingly dangerous phrase. Imposter websites, designed to look like professional outlets, are pumping out misleading hyper-partisan content. Sock puppet accounts post outrage memes “Agents of disinformation have learned to Instagram and click farms manipulate the trending sections of social media platforms and their that using genuine content — reframed recommendation systems. Elsewhere, foreign agents in new and misleading ways — is less pose as Americans to coordinate real-life protests likely to get picked up by AI systems.” between different communities while the mass collection of personal data is used to micro-target voters with bespoke messages and advertisements. At First Draft, we advocate using the terms Over and above this, conspiracy communities on that are most appropriate for the type of content; 4chan and Reddit are busy trying to fool reporters whether that’s propaganda, lies, conspiracies, into covering rumors or hoaxes. rumors, hoaxes, hyperpartisan content, falsehoods The term ‘fake news’ doesn’t begin to cover all of this. or manipulated media. We also prefer to use Most of this content isn’t even fake; it’s often genuine, the terms disinformation, misinformation or used out of context and weaponized by people who malinformation. Collectively, we call it know that falsehoods based on a kernel of truth are information disorder. more likely to be believed and shared. And most of this can’t be described as ‘news’. It’s good old-fashioned rumors, it’s memes, it’s manipulated videos and hyper-targeted ‘dark ads’ and old photos re-shared as new. 6 INFORMATION DISORDER INTRODUCTION 7 DISINFORMATION, MISINFORMATION I N S S T E E N AND MALINFORMATION N T E S T L O A F H Disinformation is content that is intentionally false and A R designed to cause harm. It is motivated by three distinct M factors: to make money; to have political influence, either foreign or domestic; or to cause trouble for the sake of it. Misinformation Disinformation Malinformation When disinformation is shared it often turns into misinformation. Misinformation also describes false content but the person sharing doesn’t realise that it is false or misleading. Often a piece of disinformation is picked up by someone who doesn’t realise it’s false, and shares it with their networks, believing that they are helping. anything with a kernel of truth is far more successful The sharing of misinformation is driven by socio- in terms of persuading and engaging people. psychological factors. Online, people perform their identities. They want to feel connected to their “tribe”, This evolution is also partly a response to the whether that means members of the same political party, search and social companies becoming far tougher parents that don’t vaccinate their children, activists on attempts to manipulate their mass audiences. who are concerned about climate change, or those who As they have tightened up their ability to shut down belong to a certain religion, race or ethnic group. fake accounts and changed their policies to be far more aggressive against fake content (for example The third category we use is malinformation. The term Facebook via its Third Party Fact-Checking Project2), describes genuine information that is shared with an agents of disinformation have learned that using intent to cause harm. An example of this is when Russian genuine content — reframed in new and misleading agents hacked into emails from the Democratic National ways — is less likely to get picked up by AI systems. Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and leaked In some cases such material is deemed ineligible for certain details to the public to damage reputations. fact-checking. We need to recognise that the techniques we saw in Therefore, much of the content we’re now seeing 2016 have evolved. We are increasingly seeing the would fall into this malinformation category — weaponization of context, the use of genuine content, genuine information used to cause harm. but content that is warped and reframed. As mentioned, 8 INFORMATION DISORDER INTRODUCTION 9 11 FABRICATED CONTENT New content that is 100% false, designed to decieve and do harm. HIGH HARM HIGH MANIPULATED CONTENT When genuine information or imagery is manipulated to decieve. IMPOSTER CONTENT When genuine sources are INTRODUCTION impersonated. FALSE CONTEXT When genuine content is shared with false contextual information. MISLEADING CONTENT Misleading use of information to frame an issue or individual. FALSE CONNECTION When headlines, visuals or captions don’t support the content. SATIRE OR PARODY No intention to cause harm LOW HARM LOW but has potential to fool. 7 TYPES OF MIS- AND DISINFORMATION AND TYPES MIS- 7 OF 10 INFORMATION DISORDER 7 TYPES OF MIS- AND DISINFORMATION Within these three overarching types of information disorder, we also refer frequently to seven categories, as we find that it helps people to understand the complexity of this ecosystem. CHAPTER 1 They were first published by First Draft in February 2017 as a way of moving the conversation away from a reliance on the term ‘fake news’. It still acts as a useful way of thinking about different examples. As the previous diagram shows, we consider this to be a spectrum, with satire at one end. This is Satire or a potentially controversial position and one of many issues we will discuss over the course of this book, through clickbait content, misleading content, parody genuine content reframed with a false context, imposter content when an organisation’s logo or influential name is linked to false information, to manipulated and finally fabricated content. In the following chapters, I will explain each in detail and provide examples that underline how damaging information disorder has been in the context of elections and breaking-news events around the world. No intention to cause harm but has potential to fool. 12 INFORMATION DISORDER 13 hen we first published these categories in the US. If you see a post re-shared on Facebook or early 2017 a number of people pushed back Instagram, there are few of these contextual cues. Won the idea that satire could be included. And often when these things are spread, they lose Certainly, intelligent satire and effective parody should connection to the original messenger very quickly be considered forms of art. The challenge in this age of as they get turned into screenshots or memes. information disorder is that satire is used strategically In France, in the lead up to the 2017 election, we to bypass fact-checkers and to distribute rumors and saw this technique of labelling content as ‘satire’ conspiracies, knowing that any push back can be as a deliberate tactic. In one example, written dismissed by stating that it was never meant to be up by Adrien Sénécat in Le Monde, it shows the taken seriously. step-by-step approach of those who want to use satire in this way.3 “Increasingly, what is labelled as ‘satire’ PHASE 1: Le Gorafi, a satirical site, ‘reported’ that is hateful, polarising and divisive.” French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron feels dirty after touching poor people’s hands.4 This worked as an attack on Macron as he is regularly The reason that satire used in this way is so powerful characterized as being out-of touch and elitist. a tool is that often the first people to see the satire often PHASE 2: Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages used this understand it as such. But as it gets re-shared more ‘claim’ and created new reports, including footage people lose the connection to the original messenger of Macron visiting a factory, and wiping his hands and fail to understand it as satire.