Disinformation today
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/facebook-twitter-and-the-digital-disinformation-mess/2019/10/01/53334c08-e4b4-11e9-b0a6-3d03721b85ef_story.html
Whoever controls the spread of information controls the world and disinformation is that power gone wrong. With the rise of social media giants and websites in modern times, bringing news easily to people in their homes, spreading information and news has never been easier. However, that information does not have to be truthful or beneficial, it can cause harm through its malicious content. What may seem to be an authentic article on Facebook, Google, or etc. may actually be from a propaganda machine. In fact, two of the largest disinformation producers are Russia and China, interfering with government or the Hong Kong protest information. In order to combat this spread, many social media cooperation, sometimes under the pressure of lawmakers, are implementing measure to get rid of this disinformation, employing algorithms and detections to ban and get rid of fake users and websites.
This is all an example of information cascades, which we learned in class, in this scenario there are two options, believing in the bad information or not, and as we may know, the more people who believe in this misinformation, the higher the likelihood another person will buy into it if they see another person pass a high signal. When all the people/news sites are fake and people can’t tell the difference, these fakes act like real people/news sites in this cascades and thus will cause these information cascades to bring out bad results, meaning that with efficient disinformation efforts, those with bad intentions can cause a lot of people to believe in their lies, that is why companies and governments are taking measures to combat these malicious intentions and thus stop this disinformation cascade.