Disinformation is a complex topic. Truth and lies are never clear-cut categories and there are fuzzy boundaries that separate them. Lots of work has focused on how disinformation exists, and how it spreads, is amplified and is received and consumed online and offline. This is all important work and contributes to our understanding of what …
What is ‘fake news’?The working definition of fake news I use is the following: intentionally factually incorrect news that is published to deceive and misinform its reader This definition can be broken down into three smaller components: (1) intention; (2) veracity; (3) deception. All of these affect whether something can be classified as fake news …
Misinformation and disinformation are two terms that are often used interchangeably in research, but what do they mean and what is the difference between the two? This is a quick blog post to clarify the notions of misinformation, disinformation and "fake news". The primary difference between mis- and dis- is intent to deceive. The prefix …
Continue reading What are the differences between “misinformation” and “disinformation”?
IntroductionI was recently looking at a fake news article that didn’t have the date the article was published anywhere on the page. I learnt a quick tip a few months ago to remedy this – you view the source code of the page and find the date in there, it normally looks something like:<meta property="article:published_time" …
Continue reading Long Form: The Online Services That Support Fake News
What are they doing?Launched by the BBC on the 12th November, the Beyond Fake News (BFN) project is a combined programme of original research, TV documentaries and special reports across the BBC’s networks in Africa, India, the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. The project’s raison d'être is media literacy and the BFN team have organised …
Protesters and counter-protesters are currently facing off in the eastern German city of Chemnitz. Following the fatal stabbing of a man (and the non-fatal stabbing of two others) at a festival in the city by two men originating from Syria and Iraq, city-wide anti-immigrant protests and riots are taking place as far-right protesters clash with anti-fascist …
On the 6th August, New Zealand MP Judith Collins tweeted out a link with the title “France Passes Law Saying Children Can Consent To Sex With Adults” from the notorious fake news site YourNewsWire.com. As seen below, she directed the tweet at NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asking if she was “willing to denounce this …
FakeBelieve - The Disinformation and Fake News Blog 