Cascade of the Falsified Web
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/anatomy-of-a-fake-quotation/238257/
It’s no secret that sometimes the internet just can’t be trusted. Be it the memes we view on the day-to-day, or the random articles that trend saying “Jackie Chan is dead” (he’s not), the internet has had a longstanding trend of misinformation that manages to spread like wildfire, sometimes finding its way into televised media and leading to catastrophic consequences. However, what goes into the explosion of misinformation on the internet, and how can it be stopped?
Misinformation is something that can spread, much like how a rumor does. In the article anatomy of a fake quotation, the author finds the source of a misquoted Martin Luther King. It originated from a post by an English teacher, who correctly quoted Martin Luther King; however, she appended the quote to her own statement. She was not at fault. She properly assigned the quotation marks where need be, and it was evident what portion of the quote was hers and what portion was citation. However, given one slight misinterpretation, another person citing her removed the quotation marks. From there, all those who shared or liked the post would follow to misinform others as to a quote that sounded genuine, when it in fact was not. Eventually, Penn Jillette from Penn and Teller got a hold of it, and it went viral from there. Thankfully, Penn retracted his former statement, telling his audience of 1.6million+ twitter followers that the information was falsified.
This simple MLK quote exemplifies the basis of information cascade. Because each person relied on the quote based on information passed on from a previous person, and their already vague perceptions of what a MLK quote would look like, we’re left with nothing to believe but that the quote is in fact false. However, once someone can provide viable evidence that the cascade information is false, the rapidly expanding information starts to trickle and more people wake up. However, in some cases, there’s sometimes backlash; too much faith in one idea or preaching can lead to information cascades becoming harder to topple, but this delves a lot more into psychology and conservative mindsets prevalent within each individual. Either, this goes to show another way in which information cascades appear in the world, and not merely as a concept only seen in a textbook.