This blog is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir as part of the Cyber Awareness & Digital Citizenship Hackathon. As part of this assignment, we are required to create one video, one infographic, and one blog post to promote social awareness.
As part of this i make it on the topic :
Misinformation and Disinformation
Here is infographic which can help to understand it in better way
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Introduction: The Age of Information Overload
We are living through an unprecedented moment in history. The digital world presents us with a tidal wave of information every day, and with 2024’s "Super Cycle" of 74 national elections across 62 countries, the challenge of sorting fact from fiction has never been more acute. Many of us feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content and the constant, nagging question of what and who to trust online.
While terms like "fake news" are thrown around constantly, the reality of how disinformation is created, spread, and combated is filled with surprising and often counter-intuitive truths. The fight is not a simple battle of good information versus bad. It is a complex, global struggle where domestic trust is weaponized, geopolitical alliances are strained, technology serves as both poison and antidote, and our own minds are the final battlefield.
This post cuts through the noise to reveal five of the most impactful takeaways from recent global research on disinformation. These truths challenge common assumptions and provide a clearer, more accurate picture of the information ecosystem we all inhabit.
1. First, Stop Calling It "Fake News"
The first and most crucial step in understanding the problem is to use the right language. Experts and international bodies now strongly advise against using the term "fake news." While once useful, the phrase has become a casualty of the very problem it was meant to describe.
The term is now frequently used as a political weapon to attack and undermine credible, independent news media. Politicians and their supporters often use it to dismiss any coverage they disagree with, muddying the waters and making it harder to have a productive conversation.
Instead, the preferred term is disinformation. The definition is precise: "false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit." Unlike misinformation, which can be spread accidentally, disinformation involves deliberate intent to deceive. This distinction is critical because it focuses our attention on the malicious actors and their motives, rather than on the content alone.
...the term ‘fake news’ is not only inadequate, but also misleading, because it has been appropriated by some politicians and their supporters, who use the term to dismiss coverage that they find disagreeable, and has thus become a weapon with which powerful actors can interfere in circulation of information and attack and undermine independent news media.
2. The Call Is Coming from Inside the House
When we think of disinformation campaigns, we often picture foreign states like Russia or China attempting to sow chaos in other countries' elections. While foreign interference is a real and documented threat, recent research reveals a surprising and more immediate source of concern for many citizens: their own domestic leaders.
A 2021 Reuters Institute survey of adults in the United Kingdom found that while 66% were concerned about distinguishing the "real" from the "fake" online, their most common concern was mis- and disinformation originating from domestic political actors and journalists.
In fact, the survey revealed that respondents were more concerned about misinformation coming from their own government than from foreign governments. This finding is a stark reminder that the information ecosystem is not just threatened by external predators; it is just as vulnerable to internal decay when trust in domestic institutions erodes.
3. The "Cure" Is Sparking a Geopolitical Showdown
As nations grapple with how to combat disinformation, their different approaches have ignited a fundamental clash of values between the world's major democracies, particularly the United States and the European Union. This isn't just a policy disagreement; it's a "competition of governance models" that is escalating into a serious geopolitical conflict.
The European Union’s approach is centered on its landmark Digital Services Act (DSA). The EU asserts its democratic legitimacy to regulate large online platforms to protect its citizens, elections, and social cohesion from the harms of disinformation. In contrast, the U.S. position is rooted in its Constitution's First Amendment. From this perspective, any government action that pressures platforms to remove or deprioritize lawful speech—even if it's false is seen as an unacceptable violation of constitutional principles.
This conflict could reach a boiling point. In a startling projection of how severe this clash could become, one analysis outlines a scenario where, on December 23, 2025, the U.S. State Department takes the extraordinary step of imposing visa restrictions on European individuals involved in these regulatory efforts. The move would frame the EU's actions not as a trade dispute, but as a direct assault on American sovereignty and free expression.
It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil. It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States. We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty...
4. AI Has Ignited a High-Stakes Arms Race
Artificial intelligence is rapidly escalating the disinformation threat far beyond clumsy fake images. The technology has advanced to a point where highly realistic and persuasive manipulations can be created with alarming ease. For example, modern voice cloning systems require only 20 to 30 seconds of a person's audio to generate new, realistic speech in their voice.
The impact is already being felt. During the 2024 U.S. election, a NewsGuard analysis found that a staggering 22% of prominent false claims were advanced using AI-generated deepfakes or other digital manipulations. This included fabricated videos claiming Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a hit-and-run and AI-generated images of Donald Trump celebrating his 2024 election win with Vladimir Putin—images that were quickly laundered by pro-Kremlin sources.
This has triggered a high-stakes "arms race" between AI-powered creation and detection. As generative AI models evolve to become more sophisticated, they are also being designed to evade detection. While some detection tools claim accuracy rates as high as 99% in controlled lab settings, their real-world robustness against constantly evolving and adversarial attacks remains largely unproven. The technology to create fakes is advancing faster than the technology to spot them.
5. Your Internal "Lie Detector" Probably Needs a Tune-Up
Perhaps the most humbling truth about disinformation is that our own minds are not as reliable as we'd like to believe. A major OECD survey delivered a striking finding: a person's perceived ability to identify false content online is uncorrelated with their measured ability to actually do so. In other words, being confident in your ability to spot a fake says nothing about whether you can.
This vulnerability is rooted in well-understood cognitive biases. The most powerful of these is "confirmation bias," our natural tendency to search for, favor, and recall information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs. This makes us prime targets for disinformation that tells us what we already think is true.
Furthermore, our susceptibility increases under certain conditions. Research shows that states of high emotion, particularly stress and anger, can reduce our capacity for deliberative, critical thinking, making us more likely to accept and share false information without scrutiny. Acknowledging our own cognitive vulnerabilities and biases is the crucial first step toward building genuine resilience against the pull of disinformation.
Conclusion: Navigating a New Reality
The fight against disinformation is far more complex than a simple battle against "fake news." It is a multi-front war involving domestic politics, clashing geopolitical ideologies, rapidly advancing technology, and the inherent biases of the human mind. Understanding these surprising realities is the essential first step toward building a more resilient and critically-minded information ecosystem from the ground up.
As the lines between truth, manipulation, and even geopolitics continue to blur, what is the single most important step we can take to build a more resilient and informed society?
Here is video overview generated by NotebookLM
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