#Impostor factory reddit professional#

Within these three overarching types of information disorder, we also refer frequently to seven categories, as we find that it helps people to understand the complexity of this ecosystem. As mentioned, anything with a kernel of truth is far more successful in terms of persuading and engaging people. We are increasingly seeing the weaponization of context and the use of genuine content - but content that is warped and reframed. We need to recognize that the techniques we saw in 2016 have evolved. An example of this is when Russian agents hacked into emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and leaked certain details to the public to damage reputations. The term describes genuine information that is shared with an intent to cause harm. The third category we use is malinformation. They want to feel connected to their ‘‘tribe,” whether that means members of the same political party, parents who don’t vaccinate their children, activists concerned about climate change, or those who belong to a certain religion, race or ethnic group. The sharing of misinformation is driven by socio-psychological factors. Often a piece of disinformation is picked up by someone who doesn’t realize it’s false and that person shares it with their networks, believing that they are helping. Misinformation also describes false content, but the person sharing doesn’t realize that it is false or misleading. When disinformation is shared it often turns into misinformation. It is motivated by three factors: to make money to have political influence, either foreign or domestic or to cause trouble for the sake of it. Collectively, we call it information disorder.ĭisinformation, misinformation and malinformationĭisinformation is content that is intentionally false and designed to cause harm. We also prefer to use the terms disinformation, misinformation or malinformation. Agents of disinformation have learned that using genuine content - reframed in new and misleading ways - is less likely to get picked up by AI systems.Īt First Draft, we advocate using the terms that are most appropriate for the type of content - propaganda, lies, conspiracies, rumors, hoaxes, hyper-partisan content, falsehoods or manipulated media. Words matter and for that reason, when journalists use the term ‘‘fake news” in their reporting, they give legitimacy to an unhelpful and increasingly dangerous phrase. The term is now almost meaningless, with audiences increasingly connecting it to established news outlets such as CNN and the BBC.

#Impostor factory reddit professional#

The other, more powerful reason is because of the way it has been used by politicians around the world to discredit and attack professional journalism. The failure of the term ‘‘fake news” to capture our new reality is one reason not to use it. And most of this can’t be described as ‘‘news.” It’s good old-fashioned rumors, it’s memes, it’s manipulated videos, hyper-targeted ‘‘dark ads” and old photos re-shared as new. Most of this content isn’t even fake it’s often genuine, used out of context and weaponized by people who know that falsehoods based on a kernel of truth are more likely to be believed and shared. The term ‘‘fake news” doesn’t begin to cover all of this. Over and above this, conspiracy communities on 4chan and Reddit are busy trying to fool reporters into covering rumors or hoaxes. Elsewhere, foreign agents pose as Americans to coordinate real-life protests between different communities, while the mass collection of personal data is used to micro-target voters with bespoke messages and advertisements. Sock puppet accounts post outrage memes to Instagram, and click farms manipulate the trending sections of social media platforms and their recommendation systems. Imposter websites, designed to look like professional outlets, are pumping out misleading hyper-partisan content. But this idealized vision has been swiftly replaced by a recognition that our information ecosystem is now dangerously polluted and is dividing rather than connecting us. The promise of the digital age encouraged us to believe that only positive changes would come when we lived in hyper-connected communities able to access any information we needed with a click or a swipe.

We live in an age of information disorder.