Recently there is a bit of question on what are the differences among misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, and where COVID deniers and antivaxxers fall.
But first, let's be clear on the differences. I've personally classified them as:
Misinformation: false information, but the speaker believed it to be true, no ill intent
Example: "COVID is for children is mild like the flu. OMG, a thousand kids have DIED from COVID? I... I didn't know."
Disinformation: false information, but speaker knew to be false, yet without ill intent
Example: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
Malinformation: false information, speaker knew to be false, with ill intent
Example: Catfishing (romance scams), put up a Craigslist posting of your enemy's address stating "moving out, please take EVERYTHING" causing a mob to ransack the place, SWATing, etc.
Now that we have gotten definitions out of the way... where do COVID deniers and antivaxxers fall on the scale?
My personal opinion is they are between misinformation and disinformation. IMHO, most of them have no ill intent (unless they're really Russian or other foreign cyber-op trying to foment trouble) and believe stuff that's not true, or fail to understand proportionality, and tries to maximize the potential harm and minimize the actual benefits of the vaccine, while doing the reverse to the disease: minimize the harm of the disease.
In terms of COVID, they take the following forms:
* OMG myocarditis risk from vaccines! (maximize potential harm, refuse to recognize myocarditis risk from the disease itself is worse)
* You can still catch COVID after being 2-jabbed AND boosted (minimize actual benefits, such as minimal chance of hospitalization, and lesser risk of long COVID)
* COVID is mild in children like the flu (minimize disease harm, even though COVID has killed over 1000 kids in 2 years, while flu rarely kills over 200 a year)
However, someone pointed me to a government website that has a somewhat different, and IMHO, more confusing definition:
Misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation make up what CISA defines as “information activities”. When this type of content is released by foreign actors, it can be referred to as foreign influence. Definitions for each are below.
Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm.
Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.
Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.
Foreign and domestic threat actors use MDM campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division. These malign actors are seeking to interfere with and undermine our democratic institutions and national cohesiveness.
There is a bit of a problem as there's little if any difference between disinformation and malinformation. The definition seems to imply that disinformation is completely "made up" while malinformation is not, but a good disinformation should be based on SOME facts to be believable.
I am not sure which definitions I will use at this time, but the finer details does not matter. One needs to point out falsehoods where one sees it. The intention is difficult to infer and mostly irrelevant.
No comments:
Post a Comment