The Dangerous Rise of Misinformation on Social Media

Social media has become one of the fastest ways to get information, but it’s also one of the easiest ways for misinformation to spread. As a result, the most common types of misinformation online are A.I generated videos, deepfakes, and false or misleading posts that can impact what people believe without checking if it’s actually true. 

 This issue affects thousands of users, especially teens who only rely on information from platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. Most people don’t stop to question it;, they usually just watch, like, and even sometimes share it with other people. Everyday, people are exposed to content online that may look real but isn't.

Artificial Intelligence technology has made this problem even more dangerous, since A.I tools and deepfake technology are now capable of creating fake images, videos, and audios that are able to almost replicate anyone. Even though most people use this technology for entertainment, others use it in harmful ways, one example is explicit deep fake content.  

  Women are usually the most targeted through deepfake videos or images, without their permission, which spread throughout the internet, sometimes without them even knowing, and end up ruining their reputation, career, and mental health. Even if the content is proven to be fake, the emotional damage and public embarrassment can still have lasting effects on the people affected. 

   Democratic Senator Dick Durbin recently introduced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-consensual Edits Act, also known as the DEFIANCE Act. The purpose of the act is to give victims of non consensual sexually explicit deepfakes the legal ability to fight back against those who create and distribute fake content. This law reflects how serious misinformation and A.I. have become in modern society. It also proves that technology is evolving faster than many people expected, forcing governments to create new protections against online exploitation. 

  According to the article “How Social Media Amplifies Misinformation More Than Information" from the New York Times, an advocacy group began publishing results that measure how much social media amplifies misinformation. The institute’s report, posted online, found that “well crafted-lies  will get more engagements than typical truthful content, some features of social media sites and their algorithms contribute to the spread of misinformation.” This shows how social media apps can contribute to the rise of misinformation online, especially by pushing false content onto the algorithm that, for many, is entertaining. 

  The same article also explains how some platforms make the problem worse in many different ways. “We see a difference for each platform because each platform has different mechanisms for virality on it,” said Jeff Allen, a former integrity officer at Facebook and a founder and the chief research officer at the Integrity Institute. “The more mechanisms there are for virality on the platform, the more we see misinformation getting additional distribution.” 

   To get a better understanding of how misinformation on social media affects people, I asked two of my friends what they thought about the situation, who are also high schoolers in New York. Tanveer Islam shared that “Personally, I think that people spread misinformation online as propaganda in a sense. Sometimes it’s shared in a way that pushes a certain idea or agenda.”

 My other friend, Sofia Gutierrez said, that “Misinformation on Social Media is so dangerous, because people spread things that aren’t true all the time, and I’ve fallen for it before.” She admitted that a lot of posts look really convincing and get shared so much that it’s easy to believe them without thinking twice. 

Misinformation isn’t new and has always existed, but social media has made it worse now than in the past. Before social media, false information used to spread more slowly, through things like gossip, newspapers, or television, but now one post can reach thousands or even millions of people in minutes, which makes it harder to see which information online is true or false. 

  In the future, if misinformation continues to spread like this, it could become impossible for people to tell what’s real and what’s fake, especially if fake media like A.I generated content becomes more advanced. It is important for everyone to fact check information before spreading it, before blindly trusting social media platforms for reliable information. Social media companies should also take more responsibility by improving the way their platforms handle misinformation, but they most likely won’t since they benefit from it.