Fake News in Our Environment

Half of the information online is fake — the question is which half?

The term "fake news" is the buzzword of recent months. The COVID-19 pandemic has once again reminded us of the dark side of human nature. Human nature? Well, a human is indeed responsible for the idea, but for the creation and distribution... Artificial intelligence. According to scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, almost half of all accounts spreading news about the coronavirus via Twitter are so-called bots. Did you fall for it too?

The process of disinforming society advances with every passing day. The methods devised by internet trolls are becoming more and more sophisticated and credible, which makes it difficult today to distinguish truth from fiction. Artificial intelligence technology deserves no small share of the credit. Specially developed software effectively uses machine learning algorithms, which constantly improve their performance thanks to access to an almost unlimited amount of data from the web.

- Not long ago, news items produced by AI tended to provoke a burst of laughter, but for some time now their precision and credibility have been alarming. Artificial intelligence can create an engaging context that may be convincing to a layperson. It is a dangerous practice that we should counteract as quickly as possible. - notes Krzysztof Kozłowski of inPlus Media, a Public Relations agency specializing in communication for brands in the IT sector and industry. The agency's expert warns of the consequences of these oversights: - It is an effective method for creating information noise, steering public opinion and manipulating history. There are surely many institutions in the world that would gladly use the capabilities of this tool for their own, morally dubious purposes.

The dictatorship of bots

The dictatorship of bots

To reach this conclusion, Carnegie Mellon researchers examined 200 million tweets published since January 2020 that dealt with topics related to the dangerous virus of Chinese origin. Based on the analysis, they concluded that of those tweets, as many as 45% came from accounts that behaved more like a bot than a human.

Such behavior included, among other things, tweeting more than is physically possible for a human and posting series of tweets from multiple countries that are so far apart that it is hard to believe any human could travel so quickly within just a few hours.

How to recognize fake news in our environment

Across all the accounts that the scientists identified as bots, they were able to distinguish more than 100 false narratives related to COVID-19. These false narratives primarily included conspiracy theories about a link between the new generation of mobile networks (the popular 5G) and COVID-19, as well as the use of mannequins in hospitals in order to deceive people, so that they would get the impression that we were dealing with a public health crisis. Creating divisions was one of the main goals of the bot accounts identified by the researchers.

Research and conclusions

Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who conducted the study, told NPR that people should remain vigilant when reading tweets about the pandemic online. "Even if someone appears to come from your community, if you don't know them personally, take a closer look at them and always seek information in authoritative or trusted sources."

An epidemic of disinformation

Professor Jeff Hancock, a communication expert at Stanford University, argues that it is precisely the abundance of unknowns associated with the coronavirus that usually stands behind the trust internet users place in fake news. In times of global lockdown, social media became an effective propaganda megaphone. The audience was enormous. According to the analysis "Europe in Isolation," prepared by the Warsaw-based Big Data company specializing in digital marketing - Cloud Technologies - during the period of greatest epidemic threat, the mobility of Europeans decreased by at least half.

Manipulated content from social media is usually more shocking, sensational and more strongly stirring to the imagination than official statements, which acts like fertilizer that fuels their growth and usually allows them to spread effectively. - However, we should not allow an easy "infection" with disinformation and should always keep our distance from information circulated in this way. Always try to verify it in at least two sources. Fear is no ally here either, as it makes internet users believe fake news in order to quickly find — or rather invent — those to blame for the whole situation. - warns Krzysztof Kozłowski, a consultant at inPlus Media.

Summary

According to research by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, nearly half (45%) of tweets about COVID-19 were published by bots, not humans. The false narratives included conspiracy theories about 5G networks or mannequins in hospitals, and their aim was to create social divisions. Experts from inPlus Media and Stanford University emphasize that disinformation driven by artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to distinguish from the truth. What is key is the vigilance of users and the verification of information in trusted sources, especially in times when social media are the main channel of communication.