Towards a Science of Misinformation and Deception

Challenge of an information pandemic -- a COVID-19 infodemic

[Parts: Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | Refs ]

Introduction

The study of information has been remarkably clarified by information theory. This is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of digital information. The field is at the intersection of probability theory, statistics, computer science, statistical mechanics, information engineering, and electrical engineering.

Information theory has found applications in other areas, including statistical inference, cryptography, neurobiology,perception, linguistics, the evolution and function of molecular codes (bioinformatics), thermal physics, molecular dynamics, quantum computing, black holes, information retrieval, intelligence gathering, plagiarism detection, pattern recognition, anomaly detection and even art creation.

The world has recently been witness to much emphasis on misinformation in relation to the pandemic. The United Nations and its Specialized Agencies have been very explicit regarding the challenge of misinformation:

• Dispelling misinformation, countering vaccine hesitancy vital to beat COVID-19, countries affirm (UN News, 7 April 2021)
• 5 ways the UN is fighting 'infodemic' of misinformation (United Nations Department of Global Communications, 30 April 2020)
• UN tackles 'infodemic' of misinformation and cybercrime in COVID-19 crisis (United Nations Department of Global Communications, 31 March 2020)
• Battling COVID-19 misinformation hands-on (United Nations Department of Global Communications, 17 June 2020)
• UN chief: world faces misinformation epidemic about virus (Associated Press, 16 April 2020)
• United Nations Launches Global Initiative to Combat Misinformation (UN Ethiopia, 21 May 2020)
• Immunizing the public against misinformation (World Health Organization, 25 August 2020)
• A Global Study Shows the Link Between Misinformation on Social Media and Vaccine Hesitancy (UN Dispatch, 9 December 2020)
• Misinformation and growing distrust on vaccines, 'dangerous as a disease' says UNICEF chief (UN News, 28 June 2019)
• WHO -- Vaccine Hesitancy Top Health Threat (Science-Based Medicine, 23 January 2019)
• United Nations: there needs to be â-"e;no place for misinformation on social media platformsâ-"Â (Reclaim the Net, 6 July 2020)

Misinformation is understood to be false, inaccurate, or misleading information that is communicated regardless of an intention to deceive. Disinformation is a subset of misinformation that is deliberately deceptive. The principal effect of misinformation is to elicit fear and suspicion among a population. News parody or satire can become misinformation if it is believed to be credible and communicated as if it were true. The terms "misinformation" and "disinformation" have often been associated with the concept of "fake news" (Varieties of Fake News and Misrepresentation: when are deception, pretence and cover-up acceptable? 2019).

Initiatives are underway to detect misinformation and fake news in digital media using the resources of artificial intelligence -- most notably by social media platforms as a consequence of criticism of their irresponsibility in purveying biased content. As might be expected, these include approaches which benefit explicitly from information theory (Victoria Patricia Aires, et al, An Information Theory Approach to Detect Media Bias in News Websites, WISDOM, 24 August 2020; Carlo Kopp, et al, Information-theoretic Models of Deception: modelling cooperation and diffusion in populations exposed to "fake news" , PLOS One, 28 November 2018).

Less evident is how to distinguish what is speculative misinformation, by which collective understanding is confused, from disinformation about the nature of the crisis, How to distinguish deliberate lies in support of particular agendas?

A valuable article, relative to the quantity of confusing and misleading information otherwise available, is the study by Adam M. Enders, et al, (The Different Forms of COVID-19 Misinformation and their Consequences, Misinformation Review, 16 November 2020). Appropriately this argues that as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, an understanding of the structure and organization of beliefs in pandemic conspiracy theories and misinformation becomes increasingly critical for addressing the threat posed by these dubious ideas. As stated, this preoccupation is itself problematic in that it appears to frame and conflate in a rather particular manner what is "misinformation", "dubious", and the focus of "conspiracy theories" -- potentially excluding what some would argue (with evidence) as being of legitimate and strategic scientific concern.

Reference to "misinformation", as being a major problem of the "infodemic", can be recognized as exploiting this confusion. There is great advantage to vested interests in disguising deliberate lies within a context of speculative claims which can be readily dismissed -- and claimed to be harmful. This has resulted in major initiatives by social media platforms and search engines to eliminate anything that can be readily labelled as "misinformation". Sophisticated use is being made of artificial intelligence to that end.

Which truths upheld by one party however, would not now be dismissed as misinformation -- if not a lie -- by another? Opposing factions, whether in politics, science,  religion or business typically accuse each other of misrepresenting the truth -- if not "lying", possibly even with "evil" intent. Does disagreement automatically imply misinformation in that one party is held by the other to be misrepresenting the truth -- lying -- to the other?

It is unfortunate that efforts to apply information theory, together with insights into the nature of bias, seemingly take little account of the extent to which such efforts may themselves be each embedded in a particular pattern of bias associated with a preferred discipline, model or an institutional funding context -- as would be argued by critics. There is also the confusion between bias and belief, raising issues as to how are fundamental beliefs to be recognized, or not, as misinformation (Reframing Fundamental Belief as Disinformation? Pandemic challenge to advertising, ideology, religion and science, 2020; Comparability of "Vaxxing Saves" with "Jesus Saves" as Misinformation? Problematic challenge of global discernment, 2021).

Far more challenging is the criteria by which the institutional promotion of any "Big Lie" would be detectable with the tools of information theory (Existential Challenge of Detecting Today's Big Lie, 2016). The difficulty more generally is that increasingly any claim regarding such a "lie" is itself readily dismissed by authorities as "misinformation" meriting suppression -- dismissing those claiming an unquestionably truthful alternative perspective. This pattern is most dramatically evident in political leaders accused of corruption -- who deem their indictment as "political".

Framed as a "war" by many leaders -- thereby justifying a deceptive propaganda modality -- is it then totally naive to assume that the official narrative regarding the pandemic is not based in some measure on misinformation, disinformation, deception, or deliberate lying? From a military perspective, this would be fully justified, given the highly valued role of deception in warfare.

With respect to the large scale production and dissemination of misinformatio

[Parts: Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | Refs ]