Technology and the False Information Cascade
In the digital age and the skyrocketing popularity of social media, information is readily available at the tips of everyone’s fingers and people have immediate access to more information than ever before. In spite of this unrestrained access, not all information is equal or even completely true. As much as the Internet is filled with credible facts and evidence, it equally, if not even more so, contents false viral content and stories. It’s as Abraham Lincoln said, “You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” The ease at which such false facts and misinformation spreads is an unfortunate information cascade, one of which is promoted through modern technology and at times could have devastating effects, such as the flood of photo-shopped and falsified photos that spread social media after the terrorist attacks in Paris. These articles discuss technology’s hand at such a phenomenon and speculate the reasons for causation.
While some fault lies with journalists and current flawed media practices, others, such as the previous example, are the result of the current high usage of social media and its availability to quickly convey and pass information in a blink of an eye, creating a rapid cascade of wrong information. Even if not true, if enough people or sources ‘verify’ or ‘back up’ a piece of information, then it may be enough for someone to acknowledge it as true despite one’s own knowledge or beliefs on the matter. Such is the case with stories on social media, where it’s generally more important for the content to be popular and well-liked rather than actually accurate.
Compared to the truth, rumors and lies create a much faster information cascade for many reasons, sometimes out of panic, others out of malice, or even deliberate manipulation and sensationalism that can only be captured through the speed at which you share the information not the validity of it. And as a result, even news sites, rather than verify the claims they pass on, rely on siting other media reports, which usually also cite other media reports as well. Because of such a round-about way of citations, facts become muddled with too many sources, which in turn does nothing to slow down or prevent the information cascade from continuing. Often the origin of such stories, once traced back far enough through the chain of citations and links, is something that was posted on social media or an unreliable claim from a person or group. So, with our current technology aiding the idea and creation of information cascades of all kinds of information, it’s important to remember that the opinion of the masses is not always the current one.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/12/how-technology-disrupted-the-truth