ICT ASSIGNMENT PAPER:

DISINFORMATION OR FAKE NEWS

Author:
Shamim Zehtab

Submitted on 4th November 2020

Contents
1 Introduction to the topic...........................................................................................................3

1.1 Definition of terms............................................................................................................3

1.2 Footprint of disinformation in history...............................................................................4

2 Real world examples of fake/misleading news........................................................................6

3 Recognizing Disinformation or Fake News.............................................................................7

4 Fighting with Disinformation or Fake News............................................................................8

5 Conclusion................................................................................................................................9

6 Bibliography...........................................................................................................................11

Figure 1 an example of misleading news on Facebook and Twitter (Source: Facebook)...............6

Figure 2 The Fake News Triangle (Source: TrendMicro)...............................................................7
Figure 3 Fake News Alert (Source: iStock Photo)..........................................................................9
1 Introduction to the topic
Today, we are living in a world where we can communicate and connect to the outside world
every minute of every day, and the result will be a massive load of information and news that we
can follow and believe.

We are living in a world where we can have access to any subject, news, data, or information in
general, but are we really supposed to believe and follow any kind of information we can find in
our smartphones?

Well, obviously, the answer is No! But have you ever thought why is that? Have you ever
thought about what information is correct that we’re allowed to believe and what information is
out there that has been made intentionally to confuse us?

In the first place, it’s good to know that there are different kinds of information we face every
day, In fact, there is one specific kind of information which I want to argue about and that is
called disinformation which is often referred to Fake News.

In this article, I’m going to define the meaning of disinformation or fake news, then I’m going to
argue about what was disinformation like in the past and today’s society and to present some
related examples of fake news, and in the end explaining how to recognize fake news and defeat
them.

1.1 Definition of terms

“Disinformation” is simply false, incorrect information; and according to Monica Chaves and
Adriana Braga in the Agenda of disinformation article the more precise definition of
disinformation is: “when false information is knowingly shared to cause harm.” (The Agenda of
Disinformation: "fake news" and membership categorization analysis in the 2018 Brazilian
presidential elections, 2019)

“Fake news” is not so different from disinformation either and they often can be used instead of
each other, but if we look at fake news a little bit closer, it can be defined as “news articles that

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are intentionally and verifiably false, and could mislead readers” (Social Media and Fake News
in the 2016 Election, 2017).

Now that we could define these terms as misleading information spreading in social media, I
guess there is no harm in knowing about a brief history of disinformation in the past.

1.2 Footprint of disinformation in history

Disinformation is a social phenomenon that has been repeated throughout history, and I can say
for sure that it isn’t a new concept.

So as a matter of a fact, understanding this concept and its role in history can make us aware that
what is happening around us, in a modern society with the gift of technology and social media.
More precisely, I’d like to highlight the importance of knowing the history of disinformation by
what Natalie Nougayrède, a guardian columnist has said: “The use of propaganda is ancient, but
never before has there been the technology to so effectively disseminate it”. (Nougayrède, 2018)

So, “disinformation” became so popular and soon it spread so fast in 1950s. With the rise of the
Internet in the late 20th century and then inventing and using the social media in 21 st century, we
have seen that many governments, groups, and even normal people have been trying to fool
common people, defraud and lie to them so that they can knowingly confuse them from the truth.

I know that most people think with themselves that they can recognize the correct news from the
fake ones; but the truth is that there is only a small line between true and false news and we will
be tricked easier than we thought so. Let me picture you an example of fake news and
information disorder (disinformation) from World War II:

As you know, War is a phenomenon which causes tough situations for both sides of the war;
every side tries to weaken its opponent by damaging or misleading the public opinion and
common people thoughts and which way is better than making up fake news and false
information for misleading people’s beliefs?

World War II wasn’t any exception either; in the following years of WWII, Allied force leaders
including Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt planned a mission called
“Operation Bodyguard” with the intention to confuse and mislead Germans about the location

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and time of the invasion, so that there is no way that they could find out and increase troop
presence in Normandy. Therefore, Allied Forces executed this plan by publishing fake news in
newspapers and radio stations to confuse German people.

As you can see, in spite of the pressure and the lack of knowledge about information, it was
almost impossible for German forces to find out which news was correct or false.

Today is not that different from yesterday, except that nowadays we are living in the age of
social media, the era of the maximum usage of technology and the internet, and to be honest,
there are so many incredible advantages that it has brought to us, for instance the fact that people
are becoming more and more aware of what’s happening in the world, what are their rights and
what has been taken from them and also what are the worldwide concerns about global warming,
earth pollution, etc., and the most important part is that people are becoming more connected
together than ever. Nevertheless, this connectivity can cause some misusing and damages in
social media and the world of internet.

As I mentioned before, one of the traps that we might never notice is that the governments and
regimes, specific group of people, and many propagandas abuse this trust via spreading fake
news and they do it through many social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp
etc., because these social media are popular within common people and the algorithms in these
platforms may or may never notice that some false information has been shared.

Further, Fake news isn’t just about some obvious examples of false information, but it’s about a
huge variety of news and it can be done due to many reasons, what I mean is that an individual
or a group can share some fake news and spread it via social media and TV, with the aim to
success in some election, or in a challenge, or to confuse common people from the truth. I’m
completely sure that many people on social media are familiar with these empty goals and yet,
they can still believe or to be impressed by them. So, what is the solution to this mess?

In my opinion, I think this situation is inevitable and we’ve got to do whatever we can to raise
our awareness about this matter and then to be able to recognize and fight with disinformation.

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2 Real world examples of fake/misleading news
A great example of misleading news that has happened recently came to my mind, which was
about COVID-19 virus in the first few months of the pandemic in the world.

If you remember, it was about months ago on March 25, when some news about the COVID-19
pandemic in Italy went viral all over Facebook, Twitter and social media platforms. It was
showing that there are lots of patients outside of the hospital and it was claiming that this
hospital has run out of space for patients due to Corona Virus.

These images and news shared and spread thousands of times by users because it was about
something that all the people care about. It was expressing the concerns about the pandemic that
if people don’t consider this situation as an emergency, then all people would die, and that’s why
everybody reacted to these pictures.

Figure 1 an example of misleading news on Facebook and Twitter (Source: Facebook)

I think now you can remember these photos vividly, but was this actually True?

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 Well, the answer is No, in fact, these images are real but the claim that has been shared along
with these photos is absolutely False. The truth is that these photos were taken 3 days before that,
on March 22 and it was about the aftermath of a powerful earthquake in Zagreb, the capital city
of Croatia.

Moreover, there are some evidences on Twitter and Facebook that shows people posted some
images from this earthquake that has been so terrifying for them.

If you think about it, you see that misleading news is so hard to recognize because they are not
totally fake and fictional ideas.

3 Recognizing Disinformation or Fake News

As long as we gain knowledge about everything, it’s impossible that we get no use out of it.
Knowledge and understating about how fake news can be spread into our lives and how to be
aware of them is an important step. First of all, have you ever thought that what are the items that
make fake news so strong and powerful?

According to Gu, L., Kropotov, V., Yarochkin, F., Leopando, J., & Estialbo, J . (Trend Micro) in
Fake News and Cyber Propaganda, “The fire triangle represents the three elements a fire needs to
burn: oxygen, heat, and a fuel. Similarly, fake news requires three different items to succeed.
These collectively represent the Fake News Triangle: without any one of these factors, it is

Figure 2 The Fake News Triangle (Source: TrendMicro)

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unable to spread and reach its target audience.” (Fake news and cyber propaganda: The use and
abuse of social media, 2017)

To sums up, we can claim that the concept of fake news is dependent to these 3 elements:
motivation, social networks, and tools and services. That’s why this whole triangle is necessary
for spreading and sharing fake news and to make people believe them. In other words, we may
say that without any of these factors, fake news will lose its effectivity and it’s almost impossible
to make some disinformation believable.

Now that there is enough information about this subject, what is it that we can do to identify
false information that is rising more day by day?

Being able to identify fake news is not as easy as it sounds; it has many complications and there
is no certain way to identify them. As a matter of a fact, there are some basic general steps that
anyone can do to make sure the news on his/her smartphone is all okay.

1. Whenever we’re going to check out the news, the first and best thing we can do is to look
for the sources of the information, is it valid, trustworthy website news? And are we sure
that this source is reliable? This idea can help with identifying news without any
authorization.
2. Secondly, we’re not supposed to accept or believe any news that pops up from nowhere,
what I mean here is that it’s better to have doubt and suspicion about everything we read
out there and not accepting it right away.
3. Another thing we can do is paying attention to the images or related photos that come
with fake news, so if we look at them with a little bit more concentration, there may be
some mistakes that are so obvious and easy to spot.

4 Fighting with Disinformation or Fake News

So far, we’ve understood that these factors and some other steps are crucial to do if we want to
recognize fake news. But it’s not quite enough.

The last and the most important step is that we have to fight with spreading this news because
without doing it, everything would be incomplete.
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For a short, briefly explanation of fighting with fake news, we have to have a little bit of
understanding of the nature and essence of Social media. Social media is a world where its main
objective is that everybody can sell something valuable to others, something valuable like some
data or information or any item. But it’s useful if we know that not everything on social media
platforms is valuable. We have to know that selling something to someone isn’t always
profitable and to fight with this issue, we always have to remind ourselves that any news or data
that you see on social media can be made on purpose and you should ask yourself that whether
this is really rational or it has been made to grab your attention.

Figure 3 Fake News Alert (Source: iStock Photo)

5 Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say this article was a brief summary of disinformation and fake
news and I tried to shorten the complicated concepts into the best definitions I could. In this
essay, I tried my best to concentrate on disinformation in general and then to argue about it in
more detail. I defined the meaning of disinformation and fake news to make it a bit clearer. I also
talked a little about the history of disinformation in general. Further I thought it would be nice if
I explain about detecting and fighting fake news.

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In my point of view, the era of social media has brought many possibilities and opportunities to
us, it has made us more aware, and it has been like a bridge for us to connect with each other. In
fact, we owe this to the world of technology and the internet.

Also, I think that understanding and knowledge about every issue is the best way to solve the
problems; if we are able to gain knowledge by science and our mind, if we can raise our
awareness by reading and get familiar with the concerns, we will be able to identify all the
problems and the way to solve them and social media is no “exception”.

With this approach, we can use all the advantages of social media and we can have the basic
understanding about how to treat with it.

In the end, I would like to mention that I myself, gained so much information about fake news
which was so important and valuable to me.

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6 Bibliography
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2020. 529, s.l. : Journal of American Folklore, Published by University of Illinois Press on behalf
of American Folklore Society, 2020, Vol. 133. 00218715.

A short guide to the history of ‘fake news’ and disinformation: A new ICFJ learning module.
Posetti, J. & Matthews, A. 2018. s.l. : International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), 2018.

Combating Disinformation in a Social Media Age. Shu, Kai, et al. 2020. 6, s.l. : WIREs Data
Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 2020, Vol. 10. 19424787.

Fake news and cyber propaganda: The use and abuse of social media. Gu, L., Kropotov, V.,
Yarochkin, F., Leopando, J., & Estialbo, J. 2017. s.l. : Trend Micro 13, 2017.

Fake News, Disinformation, and Deepfakes: Leveraging Distributed Ledger Technologies and
Blockchain to Combat Digital Deception and Counterfeit Reality. Paula Fraga-Lamas, T.
Fernández-Caramés. 2019. A Coruna, Spain : arXiv, 2019.

Mining Disinformation and Fake News: Concepts, Methods, and Recent Advancements. Shu,
Kai, et al. 2020. s.l. : arXiv, 2020.

Nougayrède, Natalie. 2018. In this age of propaganda, we must defend ourselves. Here’s how.
www.theguardian.com. [Online] January 31, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/propaganda-defend-russia-technology.

Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election. Allcott, Hunt & Gentzkow, Matthew. 2017.
2, s.l. : Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Vol. 31.

The Agenda of Disinformation: "fake news" and membership categorization analysis in the 2018
Brazilian presidential elections. Chaves, Mônica & Braga, Adriana. 2019. 3, s.l. : Brazilian
Journalism Research, 2019, Vol. 15. 18084079.

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