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United States News

Many Developed Countries View Online Misinformation as 'Major Threat' (nytimes.com) 88

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Nearly three-quarters of people across 19 countries believe that the spread of false information online is a "major threat," according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. From a report: Researchers asked 24,525 people from 19 countries with advanced economies to rate the severity of threats from climate change, infectious diseases, online misinformation, cyberattacks from other countries and the condition of the global economy. Climate change was the highest-rated concern for most countries, with a median of 75 percent of respondents saying it is a major threat. Misinformation trailed closely behind, with a median of 70 percent deeming it a major threat.

The findings add to research that Pew released this year focusing on the United States. That survey showed misinformation virtually tied with cyberhacking as the top concern for Americans, with about seven in 10 people saying each is a major threat. In a sharp contrast with the other countries surveyed, the United States rated climate change the lowest threat among the available options. After several bruising years of misinformation about elections and the coronavirus pandemic, 70 percent of Americans now believe that false information spread online is a major threat. Another 26 percent believe it is a minor threat, and just 2 percent say it is not a threat.
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Many Developed Countries View Online Misinformation as 'Major Threat' More

Many Developed Countries View Online Misinformation as 'Major Threat'

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  • "Climate change was the highest-rated concern for most countries, with a median of 75 percent of respondents saying it is a major threat. Misinformation trailed closely behind, with a median of 70 percent deeming it a major threat." First Sentence proves the second.
    • You're right. The fact that 25% don't think climate change is a threat is proof that the misinformation campaign to politicise climate change science has infact been somewhat effective, ipso facto misinformation is a threat. :thumbs up:

      • You're right. The fact that 25% don't think climate change is a threat is proof that the misinformation campaign to politicise climate change science has infact been somewhat effective

        This number could be skewed a bit, depending on how they ask the questions.

        There may be a lot of folks in that number that simply don't give a shit about climate change, especially given the more immediate problems of the day in their daily lives.

    • How? Are you saying climate change is misinformation? Maybe you are misinformed? In that case maybe the second sentence proves the second sentence i.e. we have misinformed that misinformation is a significant threat.

      Actually this study shows nothing on what is an actual threat, just what we have convinced ourselves is a threat.

  • Not directly, but the erosion of general trust it causes is horrifying. I have a relative who is utterly paranoid now, and while it might be a medical condition, seeing all kinds of conspiracy nonsense online (and having it amplified by the mere act of looking at it and training the providers on your interests) is definitely a factor.

    • Re:I agree (Score:4, Interesting)

      by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @08:09PM (#62845141)

      I've seen the same thing a few times now, and its awful.

      A cousin of mine, who was always a bit dim, but never like this went down the full blown QAnon / antivax conspiracy rabbit hole, and just became straight up unhinged. His social media became filled with hostile ranting about how various celebs/politicians/etc where working in league with "satanists" to abduct kids to extract , uh I think it was andrenaline or something in underground cities or whatever. Then when covid came it just spiraled worse. He was making threats on family members threatening violence if they got vaccinated, and the like. He more or less kicked himself out the family after similar threats against his own mother who, I might add, is very elderly, has emphysemia and would likely die from covid without vaccines. We had to sneak her off for her vaccines because of her fear of him.

      A similar thing with the guitarist from my old band. He was one a mellow friendly person, and then he ended up spiralling into the QAnon/Vaccine disinfo stuff, and before long had seriously beaten up his wife for getting the kids vaccinated. He now lives in his van.

      This stuff ruins lives.

      • I have a penchant for collecting conspiracy theories. And what I've noticed is that many of the people who believe them have what we would call a "high functioning mental illness". That is, they are capable of functioning in society, but have difficulty telling the difference between reality and made up stories. Typically, the emphasis on "trusting experts" in the media has overcome their own sense of common sense and sound judgment.

        The net consequence is that, because the media constantly exaggerates

    • I think it is a major threat -not in terms of severity of harm, but in terms of how widespread the harm is.

      Reading/conversing on slashdot (for example) has become a constant struggle with the misinformed and those actively spreading misinformation. This makes reading the site less enjoyable, but I can always just not read slashdot, right?

      People in the real world are quoting "things they read online" as indisputable facts -and acting on them. This has a real impact. One that cannot be avoided simply by ig

  • All the major communication revolutions prior to the internet favored the "developed" nations.

    Printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television ... all needed heavy investment, and the developed nations were masters in controlling them and setting the narratives.

    Now the other side, China, Iraq, India, Russia, even tiny countries like Macedonia are pouring over the borders, they seem to be way ahead of the West when it comes to taking advantage of "opportunities" offered by this new medium

  • Carl Sagan was right (Score:3, Informative)

    by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:09PM (#62844883)

    Carl Sagan on being skeptical [twitter.com]

    Twitter "permanently suspended" former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson for violating the platform's COVID-19 misinformation guidelines. Here's the tweet that got him kicked off ...

    "It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine. Think of it - at best - as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity,"

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by zeeky boogy doog ( 8381659 )
      Well, that is a complete pantload of covid misinformation, why is anyone surprised it got him kickbanned for covid misinformation?
      • So âoemisinformationâ is the truth that you donâ(TM)t like. Gotcha!

      • Well, he won a court case against Twitter and is now back on the platform.

        He is receiving internal Twitter info (judge granted discovery) regarding his case and published it on substack.

        Turns out Twitter was pressured by the US government to shut him down. The chap is now suing the US government over 1st amendment violation.

        BTW, Twitter employees did not see his posts as misinformation and acted only after the government stepped in.

        And nothing in that post is misinformation in any way. It is, in fact, the t

        • Turns out Twitter was pressured by the US government to shut him down. The chap is now suing the US government over 1st amendment violation.

          THIS!!

          If in fact the US Federal Govt, was pressuring ANY media, including social media to carry a narrative, or censor people or groups, this needs to be taken to court and should be making headlines.

          If things like this and the recent revelation by Zuck about Facebook being told to squash the Hunter Biden laptop story are found to be true, people need to be fired and

    • Re:Carl Sagan was right (Score:5, Insightful)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:17PM (#62844905)

      Carl Sagan on being skeptical [twitter.com]

      Twitter "permanently suspended" former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson for violating the platform's COVID-19 misinformation guidelines. Here's the tweet that got him kicked off ...

      "It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine. Think of it - at best - as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity,"

      Well, Twitter wasn't wrong. What Berenson said is exactly how every other vaccine works. You get it in advance so you don't get sick later. Ever notice how we don't have polio rampaging through our masses? Funny how that coincides with people being vaccinated BEFORE they got sick.

      Got measles? Didn't think so. Thank a vaccine given before you got sick for that. Those who have measles we've seen coming from one particular country? Funny how they got measles because they weren't vaccianted yet all the people from the same area who are vaccinated didn't get measles.

      As for the "side effects", funny how those same conditions come from covid, but you don't hear folks such as Berenson mention that. Because that would be honest reporting.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by haunebu ( 16326 )

        People who get the measles (MMR) vaccine don't spread measles. Ever. You're comparing apples and oranges.

        • People who get the Covid vaccines don't "spread" it either, that is, the vaccine isn't what gives you the disease.

          Its easy for you to make that statement about measles because you live in a world where measles viruses arent floating around everywhere because where we sit today we've hve 90%+ measles vaccination rates for decades, because mandates for children. Go back decades and people vaccinated against measles still occasionally caught it and spread it becuase they were still getting exposed. Covid va

        • This is just ignorant, you're confused and irrationally believing in an absolute.

          It seems absolute because the success of measles vaccination program lead to herd immunity in many populations. However, when you have subpopulations where the vaccination rate is too low to achieve that, resulting in outbreaks, you do find breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals. You're just an ignorant chucklehead, and you think that since you didn't know about it, it doesn't exist.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dryeo ( 100693 )

          They do if they still catch measles. The measles vaccine is not 100% effective. The CDC says one shot is 93%, so 7 out of a hundred could catch and spread measles. 2 doses is better, 97%.
          Thing is that the Covid vaccines are more like the flu vaccine as Covid is sneakier then measles in avoiding the immune system and it mutates more often.
          https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/v... [cdc.gov] Do your own searches, no vaccine is 100% effective and some are pretty shitty.

          • They do if they still catch measles. The measles vaccine is not 100% effective. The CDC says one shot is 93%, so 7 out of a hundred could catch and spread measles. 2 doses is better, 97%. Thing is that the Covid vaccines are more like the flu vaccine as Covid is sneakier then measles in avoiding the immune system and it mutates more often.

            Sure, no medical tx is 100% effective on the whole of humanity.

            However, prior to covid, there was really good common understanding about the vaccines we all have known

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dryeo ( 100693 )

              They're all called shots here in informal talk and vaccines in formal talk here (BC), sometimes jabs. You get the MMR jabs as a kid, I got the smallpox shot years ago etc. Basically slang vs medical talk, with the flu vaccine standing out as it needs to be used yearly.
              Thing is vaccines work really well for those viruses that if you catch the disease, you are immune for life or close to it. Measles, chickenpox mumps etc, I caught them all as a kid and am immune, well chickenpox is known to come back as shing

    • Re:Carl Sagan was right (Score:4, Informative)

      by topologist ( 644470 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:25PM (#62844937)
      The "terrible side effect profile" bit is certainly inaccurate, the mRNA vaccines are among the safest vaccines; J&J had a few very rare side effects, hence why it was pulled out of an abundance of caution.

      The vaccines don't stop transmission of course (i.e. similar to the influenza vaccines in that they are not sterilizing), but they definitely reduce the transmission rate, cf.:

      https://www.medrxiv.org/conten... [medrxiv.org]

      Quoting:

      "We estimate that vaccination, prior infection, and both vaccination and prior infection reduced an index case’s risk of transmitting to close contacts by 24% (9-37%), 21% (4-36%) and 41% (23-54%), respectively. Booster vaccine doses and more recent vaccination further reduced infectiousness. These findings suggest that although vaccinated and/or previously infected individuals remain infectious upon SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in this prison setting, their infectiousness is reduced compared to individuals without any history of vaccination or infection."

      • Re:Carl Sagan was right (Score:5, Insightful)

        by topologist ( 644470 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @07:15PM (#62845077)
        Also: I wonder if these antivax types who have somehow convinced themselves that an ex-NYT reporter is more trustworthy than immunologists and virologists are aware that Berenson is vehemently against marijuana legalization, since he argues that it is a psychotic drug!

        In 2019, Berenson authored the book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, which argues that marijuana use contributes to psychotic disorders and violent crime. The book has been denounced as alarmist and inaccurate in the scientific and medical communities because of his claims that cannabis causes psychosis and violence; many scientists state that he is drawing inappropriate conclusions from the research, primarily by inferring causation from correlation.

        (Yes, from Wikipedia, but the excerpt above is well cited, I refer you to Wikipedia for the citations)

      • Lol what??? You call the other side “misinformation” but think for a second - the vaccine had quite consistent and severe side effects in the vast majority of those who took it. If you were very lucky, you only got a sore arm for a few days, but if you’re average (and like me) I felt like I had the mild version of the flu for 3 days. Quite a range of symptoms from muscle soreness to extreme fatigue. That fucking qualifies for severe side effects!!! Thinking through nearly every other medic

    • While Carl was right about skepticism, and Twitter was heavy handed here, Carl would have also understood the role of the vaccines, would have supported their use, and would have recognized Berenson's tweet as an ignorant rant.
      There were valid arguments to be made against a mandate, but this wasn't one of them.

  • The 1984 is coming and you are being primed to cheer it on.

    • Commonly repeated by people who haven't read the book and assume, based on who in their media stream says "1984," that it is some sort of Ayn Rand libertarian thing. ROFLCOPTER

      • So you mean 1984 wasn't about how shitty oppressive government crushes the will of once free people if given a chance?

        What was it about?

        Asking for a friend....

  • Misinformation might also be a threat, but it's more of an excuse to squeeze all information through a state controlled/billionaire controlled filter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sin2x ( 1189089 )
      Too little too late. It could have even worked to a degree when the economy was booming but never in a global recession. Tumultous times are ahead and it's in the air, everywhere.

  • Completely distorting and manipulating the news with their hidden agenda.

  • Many Developed Countries View Online Misinformation as 'Major Threat'

    So they are going to ban cable news then?

  • asymmetric, soft warfare. When China or Russia want to make a point, they sponsor an internet misinformation campaign to try and rile up the dumbest 25% of the population. Or they put a female basketball player in prison, throw an oil executive out a hospital window, or ramp up their suppression of an already-beaten minority group. In other words, they target the people who are weaker and vulnerable. Unimpressive, to say the least.

    When the US wants to make a point, we sail an entire US Navy battle group

    • Arrest female basketball player? You forgot she's also a lesbian and loudly hates America because -everything- is racist.

      Maybe if she had respected a very simple Russian law about not taking drugs into their country nothing would have happened? When in Rome, duh. Zero sympathy for dumb girl on this one. And I'm very glad they didn't swap that idiot for the criminal we're holding.

      • From what I understand, she denies the charges. Now, I have no idea who to believe. Maybe the hashish oil cartridges were planted by the FSB, which would be completely true to form for them, any day of the week. Maybe she idiotically tossed them in her luggage without thinking. Also possible. Let's assume she did actually bring that crap into Russia. That makes her a petty criminal in my book. Still, not exactly an awesome show of power by the great noble eternal and powerful Russian Empire. And yes, tradi
  • The same countries where youâ(TM)re in trouble if you say men canâ(TM)t get pregnant, right?

  • Mis-information??? (Score:3)

    by JDAustin ( 468180 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:41PM (#62844999)

    Isn't that information that just goes against the government narrative?

    Like saying that there were no WMDs in Iraq back in '02 would be considered misinformation.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xalqor ( 6762950 )

      Isn't that information that just goes against the government narrative?

      Misinformation is information that is false or inaccurate. It's not defined by who is disseminating it. There are people who claim anything opposing their own agenda is misinformation... And that's also misinformation. You can find some of these people in government, and you can also find them outside of government.

      You have to apply critical thinking if you want to defend yourself against misinformation. If you think it's only governmen

  • This fear is a form of manipulation?

    Nothing anyone says (but the mundane) is accurate enough to be classified as anything but misinformation.

    The fact is if someone says they raised their hand that would be misinformation. One witness would say he didn'traise it fully. Another would say it was fully raised but with open hand. Another says a fist instead of open. Someone says he flipped everyone off with a raised hand. Someone says he was aggressive with his hand as he raised it. Others say he was makin

  • People everywhere want to be in control (Score:4, Insightful)

    by biggaijin ( 126513 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:55PM (#62845027)

    In every country, many people are anxious to ban "incorrect" information, where anything they disagree with is incorrect. It's human nature, and it's why the US Constitution specifically guarantees freedom of speech. Fortunately, the Constitution's authority overrides all the political hacks who want to censor what we see and hear. Private companies have some discretion in the information they want to disseminate, and it is unfortunate that the government has found a way to exploit this to censor public discourse.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's not a 1st Amendment issue, it's private companies running these platforms. They want to keep the worst stuff off their platforms because they want them to be engaging places to be, and not get the bad publicity of spreading things like COVID misinformation or being used to plan and coordinate coups.

      • So, you did not see where the FBI pressured Facebook to treat the Hunter Biden laptop story as misinformation just before the 2020 election?
        That sure sounds like a First Amendment issue to me.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • I do not know what to say. Hunter dropped his laptop off for repair, then failed to pick it up. It did not end up "across the country". You have revealed that you completely drink the kool aid and believe what you are told to believe.

  • that's the established powers that be (Score:3)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @06:58PM (#62845031)
    wanting to kill free speech, if the opposing views are bullshit then it wont stand up to criticism, but if there is any truth behind it then it should be heard and weighed against the established dialog
  • Let's start by calling it what it is. It is not misinformation, it is malicious propaganda that is specifically tailored and targeted to vulnerable people. It exploits the trust that people have in authority figures and/or institutions.

  • 70 percent of Americans now believe that false information spread online is a major threat

    Half of those people think it's the conservatives spreading false information, and half of those people think it's the liberals spreading false information.

  • Ironic (Score:2)

    by quax ( 19371 )

    Americans rank the climate change threat last due to decades long exposure to massive misinformation.

  • to be fair (Score:3)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Friday September 02, 2022 @04:54AM (#62845801) Journal

    Then again, most repressive dictatorships believe the uncontrolled spread of information online is a threat intrinsically, certainly claiming that's "disinformation" as well.

    Either:
    1) there's an actual rise in misinformation online which is impossible for reasonably educated citizens to filter, or
    2) western, ostensibly liberal, open governments are starting to "come around" to the idea that uncontrolled narratives are awfully inconvenient too.

  • This research shows that the people are calling for censor^h^h^h^h^h guidance from the government over what to believe. What could go wrong with the people in power telling you who and what you should trust?

  • Here's the funny thing about academics.
    Talk to any psychologist or scientist of the mind and they WILL TELL you scientifically that most people do not act rationally on facts. Scientifically, we know this.

    From an evolutionary stand point, we know humans are able to be so successful because we can cooperate in large groups, mainly by telling ourselves stories. Convincing people they are religion X, or ethnicity Y, or political view Z... hey, we'll even kill each other and risk our lives over these stories.

    No

  • look at what is being done to Assange.

    We live in a world stripped bare of lies by Wikileaks and Whistleblowers, and those truth tellers are being outright murdered where possible, or abused by process where not.

    You just have to look at some of the posts here on slashdot to see that misinfo agents are here to shit up discussion on things that matter.

  • Online information, ftfy.

  • "If you don't read newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read a newspaper, you are misinformed" --Mark Twain (b. 1835) https://chng.it/w8JQc6Yws8 [chng.it]

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