Misinformation

All stories in Misinformation

• Twitter now warns you before liking a tweet labeled for misinformation

  The US election may be all but over, but social media networks are still trying to fight rampant misinformation spreading ...

  • Napier Lopez

• One for the haters: Twitter considers adding a dislike button

  There have been two major missing components everyone on Twitter: the edit button and the dislike button. Well, we might ...

  • Mix

• Twitter flagged 300,000 tweets for election misinformation

  A little over a week after the US election, Twitter has revealed it has labeled over 300,000 tweets as election misinformation ...

  • Mix

• Facebook charged Biden a higher price than Trump for campaign ads

  When President Donald Trump wanted to reach out to older Arizona voters in August with the message "The RADICAL Left ...

  • The Markup

• Facebook is finally banning anti-vax ads from its platform and Instagram

  In an effort to curb health misinformation amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook will ban ads discouraging vaccines and ...

  • Mix

• Can deepfake detectors keep up with advances in AI-generated video?

  An investigative journalist receives a video from an anonymous whistleblower. It shows a candidate for president admitting ...

  • The Conversation

• Who thought political ads featuring Deepfake Putin and Kim trashing the US was a good idea?

  A not-for-profit called RepresentUS, working with creative media agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address, recently used the popular ...

  • Tristan Greene

• 5 things self-proclaimed COVID-19 'experts' get wrong about statistics

  If we don’t analyze statistics for a living, it’s easy to be taken in by misinformation about COVID-19 statistics on ...

  • The Conversation

• Facebook Messenger wants to curb misinformation by limiting forwards to 5 contacts at a time

  In 2018, WhatsApp introduced a limit on forwarding messages to only five contacts at a time. Now, Facebook is bringing that ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• AI job listings plummet as COVID-19 recession appears imminent

  The last thing we expected to see near the end of 2020 was a truce between human job-seekers and the deep learning systems ...

  • Tristan Greene

• How will GPT-3 change our lives?

  “GPT-3 is not a mind, but it is also not entirely a machine. It’s something else: a statistically abstracted representation ...

  • Fiona J McEvoy

• Oh, the irony: Trump's executive order accuses TikTok of spreading COVID-19 misinformation

  President Donald Trump did it. He just signed the executive order to ban any US-based company's transaction with TikTok and ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• WhatsApp now lets you reverse search viral messages to check if they're bogus

  WhatsApp has been testing features to let you perform reverse search images and text of the message to control misinformation. ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• How YouTube’s bias algorithm hurts those looking for information on health

  YouTube hosts millions of videos related to health care. The Health Information National Trends Survey reports that 75% ...

  • The Conversation

• Unlike other tech giants, Amazon won't say how many workers review posts

  A timer started the moment he logged in at his desk. He’d scan a post of a product flagged by someone as counterfeit, ...

  • The Markup

• The anatomy of a fake news headline

  As confrontations between Black Lives Matter protesters and police erupted across the country earlier this month, some Oregonians, ...

  • The Markup

• Twitter embeds fact-checking links in Trump's lying tweets

  It looks like Twitter's finally had enough of US President Donald Trump's abuse of its platform. Today, keen observers may ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Want to find a misinformed public? Facebook’s already done it

  Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a post pledging to combat misinformation about COVID-19 circulating on ...

  • The Markup

• Facebook to notify users who've read coronavirus misinformation

  Facebook users who have interacted with coronavirus misinformation will soon get alerts on the platform, the company announced ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• WhatsApp limits message forwarding to only one person at a time

  With the coronavirus pandemic affecting countries all over the world, misinformation is on the rise on the internet. While ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Google launches coronavirus news hub to keep reliable coverage in one place

  There's no shortage of coverage around coronavirus, but that also means it can get annoying to sift through all the noise. ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Roses are red, violets are blue, Google wants that sweet coronavirus ad money too

  We all knew it's a matter of time: Google has revealed it'll soon introduce changes to its terms that'll allow certain entities ...

  • Mix

• Social media conspiracies blame coronavirus on 5G internet

  Conspiracy theorists are infecting YouTube and Facebook with bogus theories that 5G mobile internet is responsible for the ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Social media firms will use more AI to combat coronavirus misinformation, even if it makes more mistakes

  Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube will be using more AI to tackle coronavirus misinformation, which they admit will ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Coronavirus and the Black Death: Fake news and xenophobia show we haven't learned from our past

  Although some media outlets have begun referring to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus as a “modern plague”, the threat ...

  • The Conversation

• App stores attempt to keep lid on coronavirus misinformation

  Google and Apple are attempting to keep coronavirus misinformation to a minimum and are reportedly rejecting or scrubbing ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• White House asks Silicon Valley for AI solutions to coronavirus

  White House officials called on the tech sector to help combat the coronavirus with AI in a meeting with Silicon Valley heavyweights ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• This algorithm could improve emergency responses by removing lies spread on Twitter

  An algorithm that filters out misinformation spread on Twitter could help emergency services respond to natural disasters ...

  • Thomas Macaulay

• Facebook plans to clarify when pro-Bloomberg posts come from staffers

  Former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is spending an unprecedented amount of money on his ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Twitter tests labeling and correcting 'harmfully misleading' tweets by politicians

  The 2016 election was a watershed moment for the spread of misinformation online, so social networks have been exploring ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Twitter now lets you report voter suppression -- here's how

  Twitter rolled out a new reporting option that allows users to report political misinformation. Here's how you can do that ...

  • Rachel Kaser

• You're probably more susceptible to misinformation than you think

  Online misinformation works, or so it would seem. One of the more interesting statistics from the 2019 UK general election ...

  • The Conversation

• Instagram's decision to hide photoshopped images is a disservice to art

  In a controversial turn of events, Instagram has begun hiding photoshopped images on its platform — even in the case of ...

  • Mix

• Tumblr’s literacy initiative wants to educate people on misinformation and cyberbullying

  Yesterday, Tumblr launched its internet literacy campaign to fight fake news and help young people spot other toxic activity ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Google removed over 300 Trump ads for ‘violating company policy’

  Over the summer, Google and YouTube reportedly removed over 300 ads from President for “violating company policy.”

  • Cara Curtis

• Facebook's only fact-checker for Dutch news quits over political ad controversy

  Facebook is currently operating without a third-party fact-checker in the Netherlands over the dispute of allowing political ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Facebook let anti-vaxxers run rampant with misinformation ads, because money

  Earlier this year Facebook said it would crack down on ads from groups peddling misinformation about vaccines. The announcement ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Facebook employees object to the company’s policy of allowing lies in political ads

  Facebook employees issued an open letter urging Mark Zuckerberg to rethink the company's strategy for regulating paid political ...

  • Cara Curtis

• Facebook will clearly label fake news to prevent 2020 ‘election interference'

  Facebook updated its policies on the spread of misinformation and released a bunch of new tools to better “protect the ...

  • Cara Curtis

• MIT researchers unveil new system to improve fake news detection

  Bad actors are increasingly using more advanced methods to generate fake news and fool readers into thinking they are legitimate. ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Twitter announces complete advertising ban on state-run media outlets

  Twitter earlier today announced it's banned more than 900 accounts purported to be linked to a China-sponsored disinformation ...

  • Tristan Greene

• Study: Most YouTube videos on climate change deny its existence

  Search for “climate change” on YouTube and before long you’ll likely find a video that denies it exists. In fact, when ...

  • The Conversation

• WhatsApp's chat manipulation exploit remains unresolved even after a year (Updated)

  Vulnerabilities uncovered in WhatsApp by cybersecurity firm Checkpoint can allow bad actors to exploit the platform to manipulate ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• This AI tool is smart enough to spot AI-generated articles and tweets

  Researchers from Harvard University and MIT-IBM Watson Lab have created a new tool that aims to detect whether a specific ...

  • Ravie Lakshmanan

• The New York Times wants to fight fake news using blockchain – good luck to it

  The New York Times has announced that it's working on a "news provenance project" based on blockchain technology in an attempt ...

  • Matthew Beedham

• Facebook's approach to fighting fake news is admirable, but not sustainable

  With the huge EU elections around the corner, the issue of fake news has started to crop up again in headlines -- and Facebook ...

  • Már Másson Maack

• WhatsApp says its fake news tip line is just for research

  Earlier this week, WhatsApp announced that it's launching a tip line in India to verify messages during the election. But ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• WhatsApp launches a tip line in India to battle fake news ahead of national elections

  WhatsApp has launched a tip line in India to which you can send forwards, rumors, and suspicious-sounding messages and have ...

  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal

• WhatsApp wants to label viral forwards to rein in fake news - but it'll have to do more

  WhatsApp seems to be testing another weapon in its arsenal to battle fake news – a label for messages forwarded five times ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook and Instagram will hide pages that spread 'vaccine misinformation'

  I'd like to think that everyone who reads TNW knows that vaccines work. That they don't cause autism, as demonstrated time ...

  • Napier Lopez

• Pinterest takes the lead in the fight against online misinformation

  The battle against misinformation just signed up a powerful, albeit unlikely ally: Pinterest. Earlier this week, the social ...

  • Bryan Clark

• It's not just WhatsApp - India's fake news problem plagues several popular social networks

  You can't discuss the 'fake news' phenomenon in India without bringing up WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned messaging service ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• Facebook ousts hundreds of fake news accounts tied to Russia

  Facebook today removed multiple accounts, Pages, groups, and Instagram profiles that were related to Russian networks. The ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• YouTube will fight fake news and conspiracy theorists by linking to reputable articles

  While blame for the spreading fake news has often fallen on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, they're hardly ...

  • Napier Lopez

• SurfSafe offers a browser-based solution to fake news

  In the aftermath of a school shooting that claimed the lives of 14 students and three staff members, students like Emma González, ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Elections, fake news, and spam: WhatsApp has a tough year ahead in India next year

  In India, most people won't ask you for a business card to get your contact info. Instead, they'll ask you if you use WhatsApp. ...

  • Ivan Mehta

• 'They clearly don't care': Fact-checkers on the state of misinformation at Facebook

  After a deluge of fake news began to overwhelm Facebook, it got proactive. The social media platform tapped bi-partisan organizations, ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Watch: Google CEO Pichai explains to Congress that Google doesn't make iPhones

  Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai today appeared on Capitol Hill to answer questions about a number of issues. Most ...

  • Bryan Clark

• Twitter suspended someone for tweeting as George Bush Sr. in hell

  George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease on November ...

  • Georgina Ustik

• Nigeria caught in WhatsApp fake news whirlwind ahead of elections

  After numerous infamous cases of people in India and Brazil falling prey to fake news spread on WhatsApp, the problem is ...

  • Ivan Mehta