Recognize bad information when you see it: Misinformation: false or misleading information that is shared with (or without) deliberate intent to deceive others. Example: an article or blog quotes someone who identifies themselves as an “MD” who says signals from 5G cell phone towers cause cancer and damage human DNA. Experts can quickly debunk this, but the claims are presented as fact without that important context, so they seem legitimate.
Disinformation: false or misleading claims shared specifically to deceive others, such as unsubstantiated rumors, character attacks and conspiracy theories. Some may seem “too good to be true.” Example: On Nov. 4, 2020, a tweet that quickly went viral falsely stated that Wisconsin counted more ballots than there were registered voters in the state. The tweet compared the number of ballots in 2020 to the number of registered voters from 2018, creating a false, deliberately misleading comparison.
Malinformation: a false narrative built around something with a grain of truth. Example: a tweet states that ballots can be run through Dominion Voting machines twice, implying that vote counts could be altered. The statement ignores the context that any voting system may require the operator to scan a batch of ballots more than once (if a ballot jams a machine) and that safeguards prevent ballots from being counted more than once. |