Misinformation
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Whereas misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, disinformation is deliberately deceptive and intentionally propagated. Misinformation is typically spread unintentionally, mostly caused by a lack of knowledge, an error, or simply a misunderstanding, which contrasts with disinformation. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, X, etc., are designed in ways that enable information, including misinformation, to be posted and shared far more quickly than through other communication mediums.
In January 2024, the World Economic Forum identified misinformation and disinformation, propagated by both internal and external interests, to "widen societal and political divides" as the most severe global risks in the short term. The reason is that misinformation can influence people's beliefs about communities, politics, medicine, and more. Research shows that several factors, including cognitive biases, emotional responses, social dynamics, and media literacy levels, can influence susceptibility to misinformation.
Policies and legal measures created to address misinformation and disinformation, in some contexts, can be applied to restrict journalistic work and limit political expression, as reported by UNESCO and other monitoring organizations. In some countries, anti-misinformation laws and policies have been used to reduce media freedom, which has even resulted in the imprisonment of journalists and editors. The countries ranked the worst for media freedom in 2025 are, in this order, Eritrea, North Korea, China, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Russia, Egypt, Myanmar, Djibouti, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cuba, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Venezuela, Turkey and Pakistan.
The term came into wider recognition during the mid-1990s through the early 2020s, when its effects on public ideological influence began to be investigated. However, misinformation campaigns have existed for hundreds of years.
Terminology
Scholars distinguish between misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation in terms of intent and effect. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information published without malicious intent, while disinformation is designed to mislead.Malinformation is correct information used in the wrong or harmful context, for instance, selectively publishing personal details to influence public opinion.
Disinformation is created or spread by a person or organization actively attempting to deceive their audience. In addition to causing harm directly, disinformation can also cause indirect harm by undermining trust and obstructing the capacity to effectively communicate information with one another. Disinformation might consist of information that is partially or completely fabricated, taken out of context on purpose, exaggerated, or omits crucial details. Disinformation can appear in any medium including text, audio, and imagery. The distinction between mis- and dis-information can be muddy because the intent of someone sharing false information can be difficult to discern.
Misinformation is information that was originally thought to be true but was later discovered not to be true, and often applies to emerging situations in which there is a lack of verifiable information or changing scientific understanding. For example, the scientific guidance around infant sleep positions has evolved over time, and these changes could be a source of confusion for new parents. Misinformation can also often be observed as news events are unfolding and questionable or unverified information fills information gaps. Even if later retracted, false information can continue to influence actions and memory.
Rumors are unverified information not attributed to any particular source and may be either true or false.
Definitions of these terms may vary between cultural contexts.
History
Early examples include the insults and smears spread among political rivals in Imperial and Renaissance Italy in the form of pasquinades. These are anonymous and witty verses named for the Pasquino piazza and talking statues in Rome. In pre-revolutionary France, "canards", or printed broadsides, sometimes included an engraving to convince readers to take them seriously.During the summer of 1587, continental Europe anxiously awaited news as the Spanish Armada sailed to fight the English. The Spanish postmaster and Spanish agents in Rome promoted reports of Spanish victory in hopes of convincing Pope Sixtus V to release his promised one million ducats upon landing of troops. In France, the Spanish and English ambassadors promoted contradictory narratives in the press, and a Spanish victory was incorrectly celebrated in Paris, Prague, and Venice. It was not until late August that reliable reports of the Spanish defeat arrived in major cities and were widely believed; the remains of the fleet returned home in the autumn.
Misinformation has historically been linked to advancements in communications technologies. With the mass media revolution in the 20th century, television, radio, and newspapers were major vehicles for reliable information and misinformation. War-time propaganda, political disinformation, and corporate public relations operations often shaped the public perception, occasionally distorting facts to promote economic or ideological agendas. With the discovery of television as a popular medium, disinformation could be rapidly disseminated to millions of individuals, reinforcing existing bias and making correction more difficult. These early trends set the foundation for modern digital misinformation, which now spreads even more efficiently along internet networks.
The first recorded large-scale disinformation campaign was the Great Moon Hoax, published in 1835 in the New York The Sun, in which a series of articles claimed to describe life on the Moon, "complete with illustrations of humanoid bat-creatures and bearded blue unicorns". The challenges of mass-producing news on a short deadline can lead to factual errors and mistakes. An example of such is the Chicago Tribunes infamous 1948 headline "Dewey Defeats Truman". In November 2005, Chris Hansen on Dateline NBC claimed that law enforcement officials estimate 50,000 predators are online at any moment. Afterward, then-U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales repeated the claim. However, the number that Hansen used in his reporting had no backing. Hansen said he received the information from Dateline expert Ken Lanning, but Lanning admitted that he made up the number 50,000 because there was no solid data on the number. According to Lanning, he used 50,000 because it sounds like a real number, not too big and not too small, and referred to it as a "Goldilocks number". Reporter Carl Bialik says that the number 50,000 is used often in the media to estimate numbers when reporters are unsure of the exact data.
Social media platforms allow for easy spread of misinformation, and misinformation was a major talking point during the 2016 U.S. presidential election with claims of social media sites allowing "fake news" to be spread. Post-election surveys in 2016 suggest that many individuals who intake false information on social media believe them to be factual. The specific reasons why misinformation spreads through social media so easily remain unknown. A 2018 study of Twitter determined that, compared to accurate information, false information spread significantly faster, further, deeper, and more broadly. Similarly, a research study of Facebook found that misinformation was more likely to be clicked on than factual information.
Moreover, the advent of the Internet has changed traditional ways that misinformation spreads. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, content from websites deemed 'untrustworthy' reached up to 40% of Americans, despite misinformation making up only 6% of overall news media. Misinformation has been spread during many health crises. For example, misinformation about alternative treatments was spread during the Ebola outbreak in 2014–2016. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the proliferation of mis- and dis-information was exacerbated by a general lack of health literacy. For example, a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was linked to the 5G network gained significant traction worldwide after emerging on social media.
COVID-19 misinformation
Misinformation is also a major public health problem, with effects on health behaviors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media was used as one of the main propagators of misinformation about symptoms, treatments, and long-term health-related problems, and caused people to make unsafe decisions, such as rejecting vaccines or ignoring public health guidelines, as reported by WHO. This problem led to an effort in developing automated detection methods for misinformation on social media platforms.A study conducted in the UK and the US found that exposure to recent COVID-19 vaccine misinformation significantly lowered vaccination intent, by 6.4 percentage points in the UK and 2.4 percentage points in the US, especially among people who originally planned to "definitely" vaccinate.
The creator of the Stop Mandatory Vaccination made money posting anti-vax false news on social media. He posted more than 150 posts aimed towards women, garnering a total of 1.6 million views and earning money for every click and share.