Misinformation and Disinformation: Social Media is a Cesspool

    Political turmoil has crippled the United States recently as citizens and government officials cling to their ideologies.  Year by year, the world has seen the line separating liberals and conservatives become more defined.  Recent presidential races have caused most citizens of the United States to choose a side, learning to hate one that holds a different view from their own.  To pile things on, the recent Black Lives Matter movement, COVID-19, and climate change have been a few of the largest points of debate that have caused people to choose sides.

    The vast majority of US citizens do not have the ability to perform their own field research and rely on various forms of media to receive their information on these topics.  Broadcast news television channels are traditionally the most popular form of media in which people obtain their information.  CNN and Fox News are the most widely-known and viewed news channels that cover nationwide as well as worldwide news stories, regardless of their political affiliations.  However, as social media platforms are popularizing, citizens are beginning to blindly obtain their information from the various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and much more.

    News coverage on social media platforms has become a slippery slope as these platforms allow mostly anyone to speak freely on their beliefs.  Anyone on the platforms has the ability to discover various pages that cover/discuss news stories.  Today, many people are using their platforms to influence others politically; around election time, it becomes difficult to escape the political debates and bickering that takes place in social media comment sections.

    Based on my personal experience, I have seen Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter become cesspools for right-wing misinformation and disinformation.  Misinformation is false information, regardless of intent to mislead readers, where disinformation is misinformation that is deliberately created to harm and mislead its audience.  All the platforms I listed above are filled with memes and other types of posts that convey misleading or completely false information that favors right-wing (or anti-left) ideologies that both attempt to persuade a moderate audience to choose their side and persuade a right-wing audience to turn further to the right.  Most posts I have came across are anti-liberal, rather than pro-conservative, which is causing a dangerous and unreasonable anti-liberal ideology in the United States.

    Former President Donald Trump was removed from Twitter for his misinformation (I believe it to be disinformation) about the January 6 insurrection as well as many other prior events.  Twitter has the right to remove any user from their platform that they deem as a threat.  Trump was using his platform to spread misinformation about the efficacy of masks, the magnitude of the BLM protests, and the integrity of the US Presidential Election.  As we can see, his followers have responded by either refusing to wear masks/get vaccinated, believing colored citizens are causing more problems than white citizens, and attempting to forcefully enter the US Capital Building while Congress was in session.

    I have came across numerous posts from dc_draino, a far-right Instagram account ran by Rogan O'Handley.  I was saddened by the amount of my friends that follow this account and like his posts.  His most recent post attacks Facebook fact checks, stating them as "not facts" simply because they usually challenge the misinformation he and people like himself try to spread. The same image he posted can be seen here.  O'Handley is either a victim of misinformation and is unknowingly passing on the misinformation to his followers or he is knowingly creating disinformation for his followers to absorb and take as the gospel.

    Although misinformation is running rampant among social media, there are ways to spot it and ignore it.  In other words, "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." The best thing one can do to confirm the reliability of a social media post is to challenge it and try to find multiple sources issuing the same information.  It's best to get information from verified journalists and media groups, and its even better if sources on both sides of the political spectrum are covering events and topics in at least a fairly similar manner.  Reading entire articles is helpful in learning the entire story rather than just cherry picking information you wish to hear.  Fact checks are not out to get you just because you are a conservative.

In a perfect world, encouraging others to do their own research and challenge what they hear would protect everyone from blindly believing the misinformation.  The problem is there are too many people that are too far-gone to help; they believe that the correct information is the misinformation.  

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