Lesson 1: Disinformation — With Intent to Harm

YALI Network

29 Sept 202210:54

Summary

TLDRThis course, 'Understanding and Countering Disinformation,' explores the growing challenge of disinformation in today's digital age. It highlights how false and manipulative information, often produced with malign intent, undermines democratic societies, human rights, and free discourse. The course explains the destructive effects of disinformation on communities, its tactics, and the motivations behind it. It outlines best practices for countering these harmful narratives, which prey on biases, emotions, and societal divides. By understanding how disinformation operates, individuals and organizations can better combat its spread and safeguard democracy and informed decision-making.

Takeaways

🌐 **Foundation of Democracy**: Free-flowing, trustworthy information is essential for building vibrant, democratic societies.
📈 **Expansion of Information Space**: The rapid growth of the digital information space has diluted the quality of information, introducing harmful and toxic content.
🧭 **Manipulation of Populations**: Disinformation is used to manipulate populations, undermine freedoms, and limit legitimate discourse.
💔 **Destructive Effects**: Disinformation erodes community trust and has damaging effects across international borders.
🕵️‍♀️ **Identifying Disinfomers**: Understanding the traits and tactics of those who spread disinformation is crucial for countering their efforts.
🛡️ **Countering Disinformation**: Individuals and organizations must work together to combat the growing threat of disinformation.
🗣️ **Malign Intent**: Disinformation is false information deliberately produced and spread with the intent to cause harm.
📊 **Information Overload**: The sheer volume of information, much of it false or misleading, challenges our ability to discern credible content.
📈 **Engagement Economy**: Social media algorithms prioritize engagement over accuracy, often promoting sensational or false content for profit.
🌐 **Global Impact**: Disinformation affects individuals and societies by increasing division, polarization, and distrust.
🔄 **Cost-Effective Manipulation**: Producing and distributing disinformation is cheap, offering a high return on investment for those seeking to manipulate public opinion.

Q & A

What is the significance of free-flowing, trustworthy information in society?
-Free-flowing, trustworthy information is essential for building vibrant, resilient, and self-reliant civil societies and media sectors, which are critical for pluralistic and democratic societies. It is referred to as the 'oxygen of democracy.'
How has the expansion of the information space negatively impacted the quality of information?
-The rapid expansion of the information space in the past decade has diluted the quality of information, increasing the prevalence of harmful and toxic content. This has made it harder to find credible, fact-based, and trustworthy information.
What are the main objectives of the 'Understanding and Countering Disinformation' course?
-The course aims to: 1) discuss how disinformation is used to manipulate populations, 2) examine the destructive effects of disinformation on communities, 3) identify common traits and practices of disinformers, and 4) outline best practices for countering disinformation.
What is disinformation, according to the course?
-Disinformation is defined as false information produced and distributed with malign intent. Its goal is to manipulate and harm individuals or communities for personal, political, or financial gain.
What are some examples of the overwhelming amount of information shared globally each minute?
-In 2021, every minute people sent 2 million Snapchat messages, watched 167 million TikTok videos, and streamed 700,000 hours of content on YouTube. This immense flow of information contributes to the spread of both accurate and false data.
How do cognitive biases affect the way we process information?
-Cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, affinity bias, and repetition bias, influence how we process information. These shortcuts lead us to favor information that validates our beliefs, comes from familiar sources, or is repeated frequently.
Why is disinformation a growing problem in the modern media landscape?
-Disinformation is increasingly problematic because it is easy, cheap, and profitable to produce and distribute. Social media algorithms, designed for engagement, amplify sensational and often false content, making it difficult for credible sources to compete.
What are some of the harmful effects of disinformation on individuals and societies?
-Disinformation can lead to information overload, negative self-image, anxiety, increased polarization, division within societies, and growing distrust in institutions. It also erodes the ability to make informed, fact-based decisions.
What actors typically use disinformation, and what are their motives?
-Disinformation is used by authoritarian regimes, corrupt politicians, violent extremists, oligarchs, and other powerful actors. Their motives include gaining political or financial power, manipulating public opinion, and promoting radical agendas.
What tactics are commonly employed by disinformation actors?
-Common disinformation tactics include creating multiple confusing narratives, exploiting repetition bias, targeting specific groups with polarizing content, combining truth with lies, and appealing to strong emotions like fear and outrage.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 The Oxygen of Democracy

This section emphasizes the importance of trustworthy information as the 'oxygen of democracy,' necessary for the growth of civil society and media sectors that foster democratic societies. It highlights the current challenge where the expansion of the information space has led to a dilution of this 'oxygen' with harmful and toxic content. The course 'Understanding and Countering Disinformation' aims to discuss the manipulation of populations through disinformation, its destructive effects on communities, and the tactics used by disinformation actors. It also focuses on strategies to counter disinformation. The lesson is authored by Katya Vogt, an expert in combating disinformation with a background in international education policy and fluency in Ukrainian and Russian. The information landscape is vast, with an increasing amount of data, much of which is manipulative and designed to engage users for profit.

05:01

📈 The Disinformation Dilemma

This paragraph delves into the mechanics of disinformation, explaining how it exploits biases such as confirmation, affinity, and repetition to spread. It discusses the role of social media algorithms in promoting content that generates engagement, often at the expense of truth and credibility. The impact of disinformation is profound, leading to individual and societal harm, including information overload, mental health issues, division, polarization, and a general distrust in society. Disinformation is a tool used by various actors, including authoritarian regimes, corrupt politicians, and extremist organizations, to manipulate public opinion and achieve their goals. The tactics of disinformation include creating confusing narratives, leveraging repetition, polarizing public opinion, twisting facts, and appealing to strong emotions.

10:04

🌐 Combating Disinformation

The final paragraph of the script invites viewers to explore further resources on the course's website to understand and combat disinformation. It reiterates the overarching themes of democracy, prosperity, human rights, education, and security, which are all impacted by the spread of disinformation. The paragraph serves as a call to action for individuals and organizations to engage with the material and become part of the solution against the pervasive issue of disinformation.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Disinformation

Disinformation is defined as false information that is deliberately created and distributed with the intent to harm or manipulate. In the video, it is described as a tool used by bad actors such as authoritarian regimes, extremist groups, and corrupt politicians to spread misleading content for personal or political gain. The concept is central to the video’s message, which focuses on how disinformation disrupts democratic societies and exploits human emotions for manipulation.

💡Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias refers to the tendency of people to favor information that aligns with their existing beliefs or opinions. The video explains that this cognitive shortcut is one of the ways disinformation spreads easily because individuals are more likely to accept and share information that supports their worldview, even if it is false. It is part of how manipulative information leverages human psychology.

💡Information overload

Information overload describes the overwhelming amount of data that people are exposed to, which makes it difficult to process and discern fact from fiction. The video discusses this as a key factor in modern digital communication, where individuals are bombarded with content that often includes manipulative or false information, exacerbating the challenge of making informed decisions.

💡Biases

Biases are cognitive shortcuts that affect how people interpret information. The video highlights several specific biases, including confirmation bias, affinity bias (trusting information from familiar sources), and repetition bias (believing information that is repeated often). These biases are exploited by disinformation actors to manipulate public opinion and drive engagement with false or misleading content.

💡Polarization

Polarization refers to the division of society into opposing groups with little room for compromise. The video explains that disinformation often fuels polarization by spreading content that emphasizes differences and encourages antagonism between groups. This deepens social divides, making it harder to achieve consensus on shared values and undermining democratic discourse.

💡Trust deficit

A trust deficit is the erosion of trust in institutions, media, and other sources of authority. The video cites the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, which found that distrust is now society's default emotion. Disinformation contributes to this deficit by spreading falsehoods that create confusion, skepticism, and cynicism, weakening public confidence in legitimate information sources.

💡Repetition bias

Repetition bias occurs when a statement is perceived as true simply because it is repeated frequently. The video explains that disinformation actors use this tactic by repeating lies or misleading claims until they are accepted as facts. This reinforces false narratives and makes it harder for people to recognize the truth.

💡Social media algorithms

Social media algorithms refer to the automated systems that determine what content users see based on their engagement patterns. The video emphasizes how these algorithms prioritize content that triggers strong emotional reactions, such as outrage or fear, to increase engagement. This business model facilitates the spread of disinformation, as sensational and divisive content is more likely to go viral.

💡Independent media

Independent media refers to media organizations that operate without government control or corporate influence, often prioritizing factual reporting and public interest. The video explains that disinformation poses a threat to independent media by competing for attention with sensationalized content. The 24-hour news cycle and financial pressures have also made it harder for credible news outlets to sustain their operations.

💡Extremist agendas

Extremist agendas are radical political or social movements that seek to impose extreme changes on society, often through violence or authoritarianism. The video discusses how disinformation helps advance extremist agendas by spreading divisive narratives that encourage hostility toward perceived enemies, recruit followers, and deepen social conflict.

Highlights

Abundantly available, trustworthy information is the foundation for building vibrant, resilient, and self-reliant civil society and media sectors.

Disinformation is a major challenge, diluting credible information and spreading harmful content, described as the 'oxygen of democracy.'

Disinformation is used to manipulate populations, attack basic freedoms, and create distrust between citizens and their governments.

The course will outline the destructive effects of disinformation on communities and across international borders.

Disinformation is defined as false information produced and distributed with malicious intent.

The massive expansion of the information space makes it difficult to filter out false, incomplete, or manipulative content.

Disinformation is designed to trigger emotional responses, leveraging biases like confirmation, affinity, and repetition to spread.

Social media platforms are profit-driven, prioritizing content that keeps users engaged, which often leads to the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

Disinformation has become more dangerous in the digital age, taking advantage of people's constant engagement with technology.

Individuals are vulnerable to information overload and negative mental health outcomes like increased anxiety due to disinformation.

Disinformation divides societies, increasing polarization, intolerance, and distrust.

Disinformation benefits from societal distrust, manipulating public opinion and pushing radical actions and populist agendas.

Bad actors, including authoritarian regimes, extremist organizations, and corrupt politicians, use disinformation to achieve their goals.

Tactics of disinformation include mixing truth and lies, provoking emotions, and repeating false narratives to make them appear factual.

Disinformation exploits existing grievances and identities, fueling extremist agendas and deepening stereotypes.