{"id":85084,"date":"2025-08-26T15:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:59:00","slug":"we-failed-the-misinformation-fight-now-what","status":"publish","type":"wpm-article","link":"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/we-failed-the-misinformation-fight-now-what","title":{"rendered":"We Failed The Misinformation Fight. Now What?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The early months of Donald Trump\u2019s second administration have, much like his first four years, been defined by lies: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-news\/patrick-mahomes-debunks-trump-weird-lie-tommy-tuberville-1235259985\/\">strange lies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion\/trump-s-immigration-lies\">self-serving lies<\/a> and inhumane lies. \u201cA deluge of falsehoods,\u201d as Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/clip\/us-senate\/sen-schumer-calls-president-trump-address-deluge-of-falsehoods\/5155894\">described<\/a> the president\u2019s March 2025 address before a joint session of Congress.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"noa-web-audio-player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/embed-player.newsoveraudio.com\/v4?key=n0e13g&#038;id=https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/we-failed-to-the-misinformation-fight-so-what-now\/&#038;bgColor=F3F3F3&#038;color=6D6D6D&#038;playColor=F3F3F3&#038;progressBgColor=F7F7F7&#038;progressBorderColor=F3F3F3&#038;titleColor=383D3D&#038;timeColor=6D6D6D&#038;speedColor=6D6D6D&#038;noaLinkColor=6D6D6D&#038;noaLinkHighlightColor=039BE5&#038;feedbackButton=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"110px\"><\/iframe><p>We often call these lies misinformation. While the term has been around since at least <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oed.com\/dictionary\/misinformation_n?tl=true\">the 16th century<\/a>, it really entered the public vernacular in 2016, with the outcome of the Brexit referendum and Trump\u2019s first election win being largely ascribed to lies circulating on social media.<\/p><p>Over the last decade, it\u2019s hard to overstate how much it has become part of the zeitgeist. In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries selected \u201cpost-truth\u201d as its word of the year; in 2017, Collins Dictionary selected \u201cfake news\u201d; and in 2018, Dictionary.com picked \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p><p>For the second year in a row, surveyed world leaders in academia, business, government and civil society ranked misinformation and disinformation as the highest short-term risks, above weather events, inflation and war, according to the World Economic Forum\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/reports.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2025.pdf\">Global Risks Perception Survey<\/a>.<\/p><p>There has been a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/five-biggest-challenges-facing-misinformation-researchers\">field<\/a> of research dedicated to mis- and disinformation; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/elements\/abs\/how-news-coverage-of-misinformation-shapes-perceptions-and-trust\/6DBC0ED06F52900F0FE207C7E9056AAD\">journalism<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/countering-disinformation\">white papers<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/programs\/commission-on-information-disorder\/\">advisory boards<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/events\/the-consequences-of-misinformation-a-symposium-on-media-and-democracy\/\">symposia<\/a>; and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/global-legal-monitor\/2021-07-06\/germany-network-enforcement-act-amended-to-better-fight-online-hate-speech\/\">laws<\/a> passed to stop its spread.<\/p><p>But after nearly a decade of concerted effort to combat misinformation, we must ask: to what effect? It\u2019s unsettling to realize that, at least in the U.S., we have made little, if any, discernible progress. While the American public has <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/40952?login=false\">never<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt1cc2kv1\">been<\/a> particularly well-informed, it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org\/political-communication\/civics-knowledge-survey\/\">certainly<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uschamberfoundation.org\/civics\/new-study-finds-alarming-lack-of-civic-literacy-among-americans\">isn\u2019t<\/a> today. Perceptions of what constitutes truth and who can credibly claim it have polarized. Trust in institutions, which was already dropping, has further <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/508169\/historically-low-faith-institutions-continues.aspx\">decayed<\/a>. Many platforms have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/01\/07\/tech\/meta-censorship-moderation\/index.html\">shifted away<\/a> from moderating misinformation to varying degrees.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Given all this, it\u2019s hard to feel confident that the work of the last decade has made measurable progress in curing our so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coe.int\/en\/web\/freedom-expression\/information-disorder\">information disorder<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s also impossible to prove a negative. Perhaps we would have been even worse off without this work. Some may feel that this means we haven\u2019t done enough. But the lack of meaningful results begs the question: Did we even understand the problem to begin with?<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-emergence-of-a-paradigm\"><strong>The Emergence Of A Paradigm<\/strong><\/h2><p>While misinformation has existed since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynharari.com\/book\/nexus\/\">dawn of human communication<\/a>, or so <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.ala.org\/index.php\/ltr\/article\/viewFile\/6497\/8631?fbclid=IwAR2wLmHsnVOx8jEGxoFpW7NNg9yH05O8F16UZqc3zgwiSj5v9G0fZ0Jnj3Y\">the story goes<\/a>, technology has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/the-role-of-technology-in-online-misinformation\/\">changed the dynamic<\/a>. With the advent of information technologies like social media, search engines and generative AI, misinformation can now travel at unprecedented speed and scale.<\/p><p>To make sense of the new online environment and its impact on democracy, a dominant paradigm emerged across journalism, academia and civil society that was largely built around a single axis: true or false, information or misinformation.<\/p><p>By focusing on facticity, the paradigm emphasized a specific danger: <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2024\/11\/25\/trump-disinformation-countering-digital-platforms\/\">persuasion<\/a>. Misinformation threatens society specifically because it can mislead the public, persuading them to think Trump won the 2020 election, that they should exit the European Union to promote economic growth or that the Earth isn\u2019t warming.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><p>The paradigm also implied a solution: If something is false, it should be corrected. And correct we did. Fact-checking, once a cottage industry, <a href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/deciding-whats-true\/9780231542227\">has become a mainstay of political coverage<\/a>, with newspapers and television stations providing them in real time. Researchers (including us) focused <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/books\/psychology-of-misinformation\/interventions-to-combat-misinformation\/FCD74AF8BD30397DCF5A244DB55172A4\">considerable<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/books\/social-media-and-democracy\/misinformation-and-its-correction\/61FA7FD743784A723BA234533012E810\">energy<\/a> on measuring the efficacy of these efforts to correct misinformation. Characteristic scholarly disagreements followed. Should we <a href=\"https:\/\/opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu\/immersivetruth\/chapter\/1242\/\">prebunk or debunk<\/a>? Does repeating the lie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annualreviews.org\/content\/journals\/10.1146\/annurev-psych-010419-050807\">help it spread<\/a>, even if it\u2019s to disprove it? Do fact-checks \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11109-010-9112-2\">backfire<\/a>\u201d by further entrenching beliefs? Do simple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-021-03344-2\">nudges<\/a> toward accuracy really have outsized effects?<\/p><p>Alongside this work, pressures were placed on technology companies to slow the spread of misinformation. While their actions were often insufficient, the task was also daunting. As described by CEOs in <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/Committee\/Calendar\/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=111407\">congressional testimony<\/a>, platforms worked to identify misinformation at an unimaginable scale through a combination of expert evaluations, user signals and automated systems. Content found or predicted to be false was labeled and downranked or sometimes removed entirely. Before the recent divestment in such efforts, Facebook spent a self-reported <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2021\/09\/21\/facebook-says-it-has-spent-13-billion-on-safety-and-security-efforts-since-2016\/\">$13 billion<\/a> over a five-year period on safety and security, with entire teams dedicated to curbing the spread of false information.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Misinformation, often conceptualized as a <a href=\"https:\/\/wwnorton.com\/books\/9780393881448\">virus<\/a> infecting the minds of the public, certainly wasn\u2019t going to be cured, but a line of defense had formed to protect against the insidious force spreading across the body politic.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-critiques-coalesce\"><strong>Critiques Coalesce<\/strong><\/h2><p>Today, we have the benefit of knowing how the story ends. After years of going all in on the misinformation paradigm, we\u2019re arguably worse off. The \u201cStop the Steal,\u201d climate denial and vaccine skepticism movements are all still alive. According to a 2021 survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/survey-reports\/poll-75-dont-trust-social-media-make-fair-content-moderation-decisions-60-want-more#introduction\">most Americans<\/a> distrust social media platforms to moderate content. Companies have largely stepped back from their misinformation policies and enforcement, while news outlets continue to die off. Fact-checking the administration\u2019s misinformation \u2014 about Ukraine, government spending, public health, tariffs \u2014 seems to do little.<\/p><!-- Quote Block Template -->\n\n<figure class=\"quote\">\n\n  <blockquote class=\"quote__container\">\n\n    <div class=\"quote__text\">\n      &#8220;After nearly a decade of concerted effort to combat misinformation, we must ask: to what effect?&#8221;    <\/div>\n\n    \n    <div class=\"quote__social-media\">\n      <div\n        class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_35 a2a_default_style\"\n        data-a2a-url=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpm-article\/85084\"\n        data-a2a-title='\"After nearly a decade of concerted effort to combat misinformation, we must ask: to what effect?\"'\n      >\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_facebook\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_twitter\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_email\"><\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/blockquote>\n<\/figure><p>What we know, from decades of research across psychology, political science and other disciplines, is that the public is hard to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/american-political-science-review\/article\/abs\/minimal-persuasive-effects-of-campaign-contact-in-general-elections-evidence-from-49-field-experiments\/753665A313C4AB433DBF7110299B7433\">persuade<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC4287360\/\">behaviors<\/a> are <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691178707\/not-born-yesterday\">difficult to alter<\/a>. Recent empirical studies suggest misinformation is no different, calling into question the dominant paradigm.<\/p><p>\u201cMisinformation on Misinformation,\u201d reads the title of a well-cited academic <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/20563051221150412\">article<\/a>, covering six misconceptions about the topic. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/five-biggest-challenges-facing-misinformation-researchers\">news feature<\/a> published last year in Science<em> <\/em>explored the \u201cfield\u2019s dilemmas,\u201d highlighting various challenges to misinformation research. This academic conversation has even emerged from behind the often paywalled pages of scholarly journals. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/misinformation-is-real-and-scholars-need-to-study-it\">Competing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/why-scholars-should-stop-studying-misinformation?\">essays<\/a> in The Chronicle of Higher Education debate whether misinformation should be studied. \u201cIs the misinformation crisis overblown?\u201d a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2024\/12\/09\/podcast-is-the-misinformation-crisis-overblown\/\">podcast<\/a> asked two guest researchers.<\/p><p>At a moment of real-world change, disagreement among scholars can seem like academic navel gazing. But the dominant misinformation paradigm was, in large part, shaped and legitimized by academics whose research helped define the problem, influence journalism and policy, and guide platform interventions. Now, scholars are among its sharpest critics.<\/p><p>In our research for this essay, we found three interconnected critiques \u2014&nbsp;the definitional, prevalence and causal critiques \u2014 of the dominant misinformation paradigm that may help illuminate a path forward.<\/p><p>The <em>definitional critique <\/em>points to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conspicuouscognition.com\/p\/what-is-misinformation-anyway\">challenge<\/a> of categorizing the world\u2019s information as true or false. In many high-stakes contexts \u2014 such as elections, wars or public health crises \u2014 information is dynamic, with truth not only uncertain but being discovered (and re-discovered) in real time.<\/p><p>In this quickly changing world, can a researcher authoritatively identify misinformation? An archetypal example of this is the lab leak theory of Covid-19\u2019s origins: The claim was initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/03\/1002772810\/why-much-of-the-media-dismissed-theories-that-covid-leaked-from-lab\">dismissed<\/a> as misinformation and, for months, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2021\/may\/27\/facebook-lifts-ban-on-posts-claiming-covid-19-was-man-made\">moderated<\/a> across many social media platforms. Now, intelligence officials consider it a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dni.gov\/files\/ODNI\/documents\/assessments\/Unclassified-Summary-of-Assessment-on-COVID-19-Origins.pdf\">credible theory<\/a>.<\/p><p>The <em>prevalence critique<\/em> both<em> <\/em>builds on and reinforces the definitional critique. Social media data are large and optimized for search, enabling anecdata to be produced for almost any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/232F88C00A1694FA25110A318E9CF300\/9781108835558c13_313-331.pdf\/conclusion_the_challenges_and_opportunities_for_social_media_research.pdf\">phenomenon of interest<\/a>. However, this suffers from the denominator problem. Take, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/30\/technology\/facebook-google-russia.html\">for example<\/a>, the fact that the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency posted roughly 80,000 pieces of content on Facebook pages between 2015 to 2017, reaching an estimated 126 million users, according to a New York Times report. During roughly the same period, however, U.S. users saw more than 11 trillion posts from pages on the platform overall.<\/p><p>Recent work, which measures misinformation as a proportion of overall information exposure, similarly finds the prevalence of misinformation to be small, bordering on insignificant. Fake news accounts for a mere \u201c0.15% of Americans\u2019 daily media diet,\u201d according to one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.aay3539\">study<\/a> published in Science Advances. In studies where the definition of misinformation is <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1lVCTBHhB-tsRnEZngDEkOwpjpdwpWcpuauRGT85v6_4\/edit?tab=t.0#:~:text=have%20this%20citation-,https%3A\/\/journalqd.org\/article\/view\/2586\/2683,-and%20focus%20in\">expanded<\/a> \u2014 for example, to <a href=\"https:\/\/journalqd.org\/article\/view\/2586\/2683\">articles<\/a> published by what experts have identified as low-quality news domains \u2014&nbsp;or the focus on a specific platform or media type is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41562-020-0833-x\">narrowed<\/a>, the prevalence of misinformation rises, but the proportion remains relatively small (roughly 5-10%, depending on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41562-020-0833-x\">study<\/a>) and interpreting these results suffers from definitional challenges. Moreover, even though a small percentage of internet users consume a much higher proportion of verifiably false information, they tend to be concentrated in the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-024-07417-w\">long tails<\/a>\u201d of the distribution: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aau2706\">hyper-partisans<\/a> who opt into extreme information networks and are often predisposed to the expounded beliefs.&nbsp;<\/p><p>This dynamic \u2014 the concentration of misinformation among hyper-partisans \u2014 leads to the <em>causal critique. <\/em>Studies that measure the impact of online misinformation on political attitudes and behaviors suggest there are <a href=\"https:\/\/misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu\/article\/fake-news-limited-effects-on-political-participation\/\">limited<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/20563051221150412\">if any<\/a>, impacts. Beliefs tend to be entrenched, evolving over years of diverse social, experiential and informational inputs. Simply put, the public is not easily moved by new pieces of information; rather, people are often <a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu\/jnd260\/pub\/Bolsen%20Druckman%20Cook%20PBehavior%202013.pdf\">motivated to interpret <\/a>the information they are exposed to through the lens of their established worldview.&nbsp;<\/p><p>When social media users do encounter misinformation, they largely follow accounts with whom they are likely to agree and consume outlets that reflect their perspectives. As a result, digital misinformation generally preaches to the choir, potentially making attitudes or behaviors more extreme but not acting as vectors of mass influence or persuasion. If anything, the causal arrows may face in the opposite directions: beliefs may explain digital misinformation consumption more than the other way around.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-beyond-true-amp-false\"><strong>Beyond True (&amp; False)<\/strong><\/h2><p>These critiques have sparked scholarly disagreement regarding how we should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41599-024-03503-6\">define<\/a> misinformation and what the <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/39666498\/\">literature truly teaches us<\/a>. It\u2019s easy to go further down the academic rabbit hole and come out the other side with uncertainty or, worse, intellectual tribalism. So we won\u2019t.<\/p><!-- Quote Block Template -->\n\n<figure class=\"quote\">\n\n  <blockquote class=\"quote__container\">\n\n    <div class=\"quote__text\">\n      &#8220;In rushing to group together falsehoods under the same analytical lens, we have jettisoned any understanding of how communication actually functions.&#8221;    <\/div>\n\n    \n    <div class=\"quote__social-media\">\n      <div\n        class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_35 a2a_default_style\"\n        data-a2a-url=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpm-article\/85084\"\n        data-a2a-title='\"In rushing to group together falsehoods under the same analytical lens, we have jettisoned any understanding of how communication actually functions.\"'\n      >\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_facebook\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_twitter\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_email\"><\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/blockquote>\n<\/figure><p>Rather than endlessly refining definitions or debating study methodologies, we believe there\u2019s a deeper issue embedded in the very word. One reason our collective efforts to combat misinformation have failed is that in rushing to group together falsehoods under the same analytical lens, we have jettisoned any understanding of how communication actually functions. We now have deep knowledge about how false information <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/fake-news-spreads-faster-true-news-twitter-thanks-people-not-bots\">spreads<\/a> and who may be more likely to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0191886925001394\">believe it<\/a>. But we have failed to fully <a href=\"https:\/\/items.ssrc.org\/category\/beyond-disinformation\/\">account for<\/a> how communication, culture, identity and politics are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Communication-as-Culture-Revised-Edition-Essays-on-Media-and-Society\/Carey\/p\/book\/9780415989763?srsltid=AfmBOoqY5GDOh3Xt20Wgtq01j5qz6NarXI1vvDC8gzUkzh5rwu6Fml0Z\">deeply entwined<\/a> in the present moment.<\/p><p>Take, for example, Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/10\/us\/politics\/trump-debate-immigrants-pets.html\">amplification<\/a> of a false claim that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. Following the playbook of the misinformation paradigm, the claim was thoroughly evaluated. News articles and fact-checks proliferated, correcting the record.<\/p><p>In the week that followed, it became clear that the false claim was not really about the facts. As JD Vance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/09\/15\/politics\/vance-immigrants-pets-springfield-ohio-cnntv\">said<\/a> in defense of the pet-eating claims: &#8220;If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m going to do.&#8221; The false claim aimed to build salience around immigration in general and Biden\u2019s policies in particular \u2014 in this case, many of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield had immigrated <a href=\"https:\/\/springfieldohio.gov\/immigration-faqs\/\">legally<\/a> through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/research\/biden-administrations-humanitarian-parole-program-cubans-haitians-nicaraguans-and\">Humanitarian Parole Program<\/a>. The point of it, it appears, was to communicate a visceral disgust for immigrants and Biden\u2019s immigration policy.\n          <div class=\"eos-subscribe-push\">\n            \n            <a target=\"https:\/\/shop.noemamag.com\/?utm_source=MiddleCTA&utm_medium=website\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.noemamag.com\/?utm_source=MiddleCTA&utm_medium=website\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Read Noema in print.<\/a>\n            \n          <\/div>\n        <\/p><p>Similar dynamics were at play with the frequent lies from Musk about DOGE. Fact-checking the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/21\/upshot\/doge-musk-trump-errors.html\">wall of receipts<\/a>\u201d does little if the actual communications goal is to keep people talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/politics\/2024\/06\/24\/americans-views-of-governments-role-persistent-divisions-and-areas-of-agreement\/\">government spending<\/a> or to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/25\/opinion\/ezra-klein-podcast-santi-ruiz.html\">wage a thinly veiled war<\/a> on perceived sources of liberal power.&nbsp;<\/p><p>In this way, misinformation can sidestep our attempts to protect healthy discourse when a speaker\u2019s aims are more about agenda setting or mobilization, for example, than transmitting factual content. Information can be communicated to shape identities, influence culture, strategically impact the media environment and more. It can be especially pernicious when false information is used toward these ends. The truth, of course, matters, but it also clearly does not define the myriad <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/comt.12019\">effects<\/a> of information.<\/p><p>This dynamic may also explain why doomsday <a href=\"https:\/\/carnegieendowment.org\/research\/2024\/12\/can-democracy-survive-the-disruptive-power-of-ai?lang=en\">fears<\/a> about AI-powered misinformation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/21\/technology\/ai-election-campaigns.html\">haven&#8217;t<\/a> come to pass, especially with regard to the 2024 election, leading some commentators to claim that we were \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/62d81e6c-eec0-4d09-a71f-6aba579912dd\">deepfaked by election deepfakes<\/a>.\u201d The framing of AI\u2019s destructive impact on the public was built on the same faulty assumptions of the misinformation paradigm. Most analyses accepted a straightforward model of persuasion in which synthetic content could dupe the masses, altering beliefs and behaviors at scale. And yet the AI-generated content that circulated in the latest U.S. presidential election was mostly \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2024\/11\/ai-election-propaganda\/680677\/\">cartoons and agitprop<\/a>,\u201d as Matteo Wong put it in The Atlantic, such as an AI-generated <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/An_Enemy_Within\/status\/1853515781243629585\">image<\/a> of Trump in a prison jumpsuit, that largely played to people\u2019s pre-existing beliefs. This content can communicate emotions and mobilize the public, while shaping the aesthetic language of contemporary politics. But it hardly rises to the level of a democratic threat foretold by many experts.<\/p><p>As technology improves and becomes more accessible, AI-generated content <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/26\/technology\/ai-elections-democracy.html\">could<\/a> certainly become more effective. But until then, it seems to be the consumption of news <a href=\"https:\/\/misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu\/article\/the-origin-of-public-concerns-over-ai-supercharging-misinformation-in-the-2024-u-s-presidential-election\/\">coverage<\/a>, especially television, about AI-powered misinformation that seems to most erode public trust in the information ecosystem, as well as the fact that public figures can rely on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/misunderstood-mechanics-how-ai-tiktok-and-the-liars-dividend-might-affect-the-2024-elections\/\">liar\u2019s dividend<\/a> \u2014&nbsp;calling into question even legitimate content given the perceived ubiquity of deepfakes \u2014 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/american-political-science-review\/article\/liars-dividend-can-politicians-claim-misinformation-to-evade-accountability\/687FEE54DBD7ED0C96D72B26606AA073?_ga=2.180541796.257196918.1754963727-533369522.1754963727\">evade accountability<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-into-the-storm\"><strong>Into The Storm<\/strong><\/h2><p>With the misinformation paradigm facing criticism from all sides, the primary critique in recent months has been a political one. Many of the self-described protectors of speech have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/2025\/01\/31\/the-faux-free-speech-warriors-attacking-free-speech\/\">become our primary censors<\/a>. A House subcommittee led by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, investigating efforts to counter misinformation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/jim-jordan-information-requests-universities-disinformation\">issued letters<\/a> requesting information and documents to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41599-024-03503-6\">chill the speech of academics<\/a>. Elon Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/markjoyella\/2024\/01\/09\/elon-musk-silencing-his-critics-as-journalists-are-suspended-by-x\/\">suspended<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/elon-musk-twitter-journalists-banned-accounts\/12583572\/#:~:text=The%20suspension%20of%20the%20journalists,%22commitment%20to%20free%20speech.%22\">temporarily banned<\/a> some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/elon-musk-self-described-free-speech-absolutist-limits-free-speech-since-taking-over-twitter\">journalists<\/a> from X, threatened legal action against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-news\/musk-trump-prosecutor-identities-doge-staff-1235255556\/\">people<\/a> who report on the identities of DOGE employees and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2024\/03\/25\/musk-x-lawsuit-slapp-center-digital-hate\/\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> against a research group engaged in constitutionally protected speech. Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12282871\/#ref5\">authorized<\/a> a list of words <a href=\"https:\/\/insidemedicine.substack.com\/p\/breaking-news-cdc-orders-mass-retraction\">prohibited<\/a> from federally funded science. The remainder of Trump\u2019s term will certainly carry more of such twisted attempts to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/remarks\/2025\/01\/the-inaugural-address\/\">bring back free speech<\/a>\u201d by controlling and shaping information flows.<\/p><p>Unlike the other critiques of misinformation, the politicized critique leaves us with an attenuated view of democracy. Attempts by pro-democracy actors to protect against genuinely harmful misinformation, such as questioning the integrity of elections, face <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/EIP_Jira-Ticket-Staff-Report-11-7-23-Clean.pdf\">congressional investigations<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compiler.news\/misinformation-research\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">legal action<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/renee-diresta-how-i-was-turned-into-a-villain-by-the-online-mob-wtpg93h9z?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">online harassment<\/a>.<\/p><!-- Quote Block Template -->\n\n<figure class=\"quote\">\n\n  <blockquote class=\"quote__container\">\n\n    <div class=\"quote__text\">\n      &#8220;We cannot continue to do things as we have, in hopes of better results.&#8221;    <\/div>\n\n    \n    <div class=\"quote__social-media\">\n      <div\n        class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_35 a2a_default_style\"\n        data-a2a-url=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpm-article\/85084\"\n        data-a2a-title='\"We cannot continue to do things as we have, in hopes of better results.\"'\n      >\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_facebook\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_twitter\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_email\"><\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/blockquote>\n<\/figure><p>Some policymakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/feb\/03\/meta-abortion-content\">pressure platforms<\/a> to remove content they disagree with, perpetrating the same perceived censorship they once condemned. It seems like these political actors were never intent on creating a fairer game; they simply were \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/the-great-decentralization\/\">working the refs<\/a>\u201d to their own political victory. Unsurprisingly, many of these same actors are also undermining democratic institutions. President Trump still refuses to accept his loss of the 2020 election, as do many of his appointees. His vice president has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/09\/us\/politics\/vance-trump-federal-courts-executive-order.html\">suggested<\/a> that the executive branch ignore adverse court rulings.<\/p><p>It can be appealing to assume that the misinformation paradigm is justified through a loose transitive logic: The most powerful critics of work to combat misinformation are also those who seek to erode democracy. So if we want to protect democracy, we must recommit to the ecosystem that has emerged over the past decade. This, we think, is the wrong approach.<\/p><p>We cannot continue to do things as we have, in hopes of better results. The prevailing paradigm of misinformation focuses on a statement\u2019s truthfulness (over other features), emphasizes its potential for persuasion (over other harms) and demands corrections (over other strategies).<\/p><p>Amid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2023\/09\/23\/online-misinformation-jim-jordan\/\">political and legal attacks<\/a> on misinformation research, it may seem like the wrong moment to question whether the field should continue on its current path. And yet we believe the moment for renewed thinking is not only ripe, but also urgent.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-renewed-thinking\"><strong>Renewed Thinking<\/strong><\/h2><p>To be clear, the dominant paradigm is not wrong about the democratic challenges of a public that cannot agree on basic facts or the unique dynamics introduced by digital platforms. It would be foolish not to heed Hannah Arendt\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books\/about\/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism.html?id=8f2y0F2wzLoC\">warnings<\/a> of how authoritarian leaders thrive on epistemic uncertainty, which allows them to not only consolidate control over the truth but also cast aside the independent foundations of a shared reality.<\/p><p>But the dominant paradigm has largely framed the relationship between misinformation and democracy as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/articles\/the-fake-news-about-fake-news\/\">mechanical problem with mechanical solutions<\/a>. Efforts to combat misinformation have largely left us defensive, reacting to strategies and narratives used by those who spread it. The last decade has made clear that we aren\u2019t going to fact-check or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.abo6254\">inoculate<\/a> our way toward a healthier civic culture. It\u2019s not enough to observe that democracy suffers for falsehoods.<\/p><p>Instead, we must begin with a more holistic understanding of how communication functions, and move beyond straightforward harms like persuasion towards more diffuse and more pernicious challenges, such as trust, identity and polarization. Although this presents a less clear-cut path forward, there are already many new intellectual currents and programmatic efforts that point in the right direction.<\/p><p>Rather than correcting misinformation, some journalists and civil society organizations are working to meet the informational needs of communities directly \u2014 needs that can not be reduced to sorting out truth from lies. Newsrooms both big and small, from <a href=\"https:\/\/thelatinonewsletter.org\/p\/usa-today-bilingual-sms-alerts\">USA Today<\/a> to Chicago\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citybureau.org\/our-mission\">City Bureau<\/a>, have been experimenting with more direct communication between journalists and readers. For example, in 2023 the Information Futures Lab at Brown University School of Public Health <a href=\"https:\/\/factchequeado.com\/institucional\/20240206\/short-circuiting-disinformation-with-rapid-response-messaging-in-south-florida\/\">partnered<\/a> with a Spanish-language fact-checking site, Factchequeado, and a Miami-based communications agency, We Are M\u00e1s, to <a href=\"https:\/\/bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com\/sites.brown.edu\/dist\/4\/371\/files\/2024\/01\/Brown-IFL-Rapid-Reponse-Pilot-v3-5a656cc41c42028a.pdf\">respond to questions<\/a> from Hispanic diaspora communities in South Florida via a bilingual WhatsApp group. Using posts provided by a research team, community members answered questions ranging from &#8220;How do I get a mammogram when I am underinsured?\u201d to \u201cHow are people handling the severe side effects of getting a fourth Covid Shot?\u201d<\/p><p>These efforts can\u2019t be boiled down to fact-checks, which generally respond to claims already in circulation. Instead, these efforts empower communities to ask questions themselves and place experts in the position of meeting those needs.&nbsp;<\/p><p>This strategy has the potential for broad effects. Helping a community member obtain health care can both fill a critical informational need and function as a bulwark against health misinformation, which often preys on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41591-022-01728-z\">uncertainty<\/a>. Getting valuable information directly to those who need it also works to build foundational trust in community institutions.<\/p><p>Technologists and policymakers are also working on &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefai.org\/posts\/shaping-the-future-of-social-media-with-middleware\">middleware<\/a>,\u201d in this case, third-party software that sits between platforms and users, that can help facilitate individual choice and possibly more democratic platform experiences. Researchers hope that middleware, broadly speaking, will address two critical areas \u2014 how information is selected and organized, and the moderation of harmful content \u2014 by providing users with a range of options to determine their own online environments.<\/p><!-- Quote Block Template -->\n\n<figure class=\"quote\">\n\n  <blockquote class=\"quote__container\">\n\n    <div class=\"quote__text\">\n      &#8220;Getting valuable information directly to those who need it also works to build foundational trust in community institutions.&#8221;    <\/div>\n\n    \n    <div class=\"quote__social-media\">\n      <div\n        class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_35 a2a_default_style\"\n        data-a2a-url=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpm-article\/85084\"\n        data-a2a-title='\"Getting valuable information directly to those who need it also works to build foundational trust in community institutions.\"'\n      >\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_facebook\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_twitter\"><\/a>\n        <a class=\"a2a_button_email\"><\/a>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/blockquote>\n<\/figure><p>Recent <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2412.10283#:~:text=Middleware%20may%20enable%20a%20more,and%20an%20unmoderated%2C%20uncurated%20internet.\">work<\/a> by academics and practitioners has described middleware&#8217;s transformative potential as \u201can alternative to both centrally controlled, opaque platforms and an unmoderated, uncurated internet.&#8221; Internet scholar and activist Ethan Zuckerman has been at the forefront of this movement, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/the_media_today\/meta-facebook-lawsuit-algorithms-ethan-zuckerman.php\">filing<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/zuckerman-vs-meta-complaint.pdf\">lawsuit<\/a> against Meta to establish legal protections for third-party tools that give users more control over their social media feeds. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/05\/opinion\/facebook-court-internet-meta.html\">legal challenge<\/a> argued that users should be able to utilize externally developed software like <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2021\/10\/facebook-unfollow-everything-cease-desist.html\">Unfollow Everything<\/a> to, for example, delete their newsfeeds on Meta\u2019s platforms.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><p>This approach represents a fundamental shift from company-controlled platform environments to user-driven architectures; individuals are empowered to choose from competing algorithms and filtering systems rather than being subject to platform-determined information diets. Middleware solutions could, for example, prioritize high-quality news outlets or increase the ideological diversity of sources to combat filter bubbles.<\/p><p>Technologists and scholars are also looking beyond individual tools to imagine an ecosystem where federated platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky integrate middleware as a core feature of the platform experience. This provides communities with the infrastructure and tools to proactively shape their own information environments, according to their values, preferences and needs \u2014&nbsp;rather than fighting misinformation after it spreads.<\/p><p>Finally, scholars have already been working to expand our understanding of how information can impact us, recognizing that the <a href=\"https:\/\/citap.unc.edu\/research\/critical-disinfo\/\">most salient features<\/a> may not necessarily be the content&#8217;s truth or falsity. Some scholars place the emphasis on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merchantsofdoubt.org\/\">financial motives<\/a> of those behind disinformation campaigns, highlighting the troubling history between corporate power and scientific inquiry. Others have examined the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/georgetownlawtechreview.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/2.2-Marwick-pp-474-512.pdf\"><em>social<\/em> roles<\/a>\u201d of fake news and explored how people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cip.uw.edu\/2023\/12\/06\/rumors-collective-sensemaking-kate-starbird\/\">make use of both true and false content<\/a> in their communities to communicate, collaborate and make sense of the world. For example, in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thenewpress.org\/books\/strangers-in-their-own-land\/?v=eb65bcceaa5f\">Strangers in Their Own Land<\/a>,\u201d<em> <\/em>Arlie Hochschild examines how both high and low quality information helps Louisianians make sense of ecological collapse, government aid, and growing economic precarity by providing \u201cdeep stories,\u201d emotionally grounded narratives that provide order to the world regardless of veracity.<\/p><p>Researchers are also examining how <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/14614448211029293\">identity<\/a> determines who is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aau2706\">exposed to<\/a> what kinds of information, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/full\/10.1126\/sciadv.aau4586\">shares<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/13684302211030004\">believes<\/a> it, and how it is <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0894439320914853\">produced<\/a>. Much of this work focuses on how the <a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/9780262539913\/you-are-here\/\">deep memetic frames<\/a>, or the socially shared lens through which we interpret the world, within misinformation shape our politics and influence how we relate to each other.<\/p><p>There are, of course, other laudable efforts that we aren\u2019t able to explore here: efforts to <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgingdivides.princeton.edu\/\">bridge divides<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.civichealthproject.org\/\">reduce polarization<\/a>, to rethink technologies for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/91278879\/jigsaw-bowling-green-kentucky-civic-engagement\">civic engagement<\/a> and preserve our <a href=\"https:\/\/jolt.richmond.edu\/2024\/03\/06\/tiktok-brain-can-we-save-childrens-attention-spans\/\">attention<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2022\/jan\/02\/attention-span-focus-screens-apps-smartphones-social-media\">spans<\/a>, to create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2024\/08\/10\/front-porch-forum-vermont-research-new-public\/\">localized social media environments<\/a>. Academics have launched partnerships with practitioners \u2014 such as the University of Washington\u2019s Center for an Informed Public\u2019s partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/learncip\/\">local libraries<\/a> and Stanford University researchers\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/stacks.stanford.edu\/file\/gf151tb4868\/Civic%20Online%20Reasoning%20National%20Portrait.pdf\">collaboration<\/a> with school districts on civil online reasoning \u2014 in order to run large-scale program evaluations in the wild.<\/p><p>These strands of research have produced important insights. But these approaches have rarely received the funding or media coverage that goes to studies that, for example, focus more narrowly on tracking misinformation, especially concerning the now modern-day adage: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mit.edu\/2018\/study-twitter-false-news-travels-faster-true-stories-0308\">false news travels faster than true news<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><p>Taken together, these ideas all point toward a different project: centering and empowering communities, and building healthier information environments before falsehoods take root. What they lack is the common vocabulary, infrastructure, and investment that once bound the misinformation field \u2014 and that is the challenge ahead.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-better-together\"><strong>Better Together<\/strong><\/h2><p>The philosopher Daniel Williams <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/articles\/the-fake-news-about-fake-news\/\">argues<\/a> that the misinformation paradigm gained salience because it offers elites the mirage that the public can be controlled by pulling the right levers. As he wrote in the Boston Review in 2023, \u201cOur political adversaries are simply ignorant dupes, and with enough education and critical thinking, they will come to agree with us; there is no need to reimagine other social institutions or build the political power necessary to do so.\u201d<\/p><p>What Williams downplays is that the misinformation paradigm itself is a social institution that carries political power. Over the last decade, a diverse ecosystem has coalesced around the topic: journalists, civil society organizations, community groups, academics, policymakers, technology companies, funders and more. Members of this ecosystem charted a common direction with shared language, overlapping priorities and interconnected networks. Few subject areas have been able to coalesce such a broad set of actors so quickly, organized around a single problem.<\/p><p>Our challenge now is to expand the scope of how we defend democracy in the digital age while preserving the institutional momentum of the past decade. The misinformation paradigm, for all its limitations, has shown that rapid, large-scale coordination around democratic challenges is possible.<\/p><p>Coordination among such a diverse group is both nearly impossible and utterly essential to avoid balkanization. It will not be easy to maintain that institutional energy as we figure out how our contemporary communication system can strengthen democracy, rather than myopically focus on correcting falsehoods. In this moment of increasing attacks on the foundations of our democracy, it is essential that we eschew the simplified frameworks and old playbooks that have failed to make meaningful progress in improving our informational lives. Not to the detriment of democracy, but in defense of it.<\/p>\n          <div class=\"eos-subscribe-push\">\n          \n            <a target=\"https:\/\/shop.noemamag.com\/?utm_source=BottomCTA&utm_medium=website\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.noemamag.com\/?utm_source=BottomCTA&utm_medium=website\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Enjoy the read? Subscribe to get the best of Noema.<\/a>\n            \n          <\/div>\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7164,"featured_media":0,"template":"","wpm-article-type":[3],"wpm-article-topic":[21,19],"wpm-article-tag":[],"class_list":["post-85084","wpm-article","type-wpm-article","status-publish","hentry","wpm-article-type-essay","wpm-article-topic-digital-society","wpm-article-topic-future-of-democracy"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.0 (Yoast SEO v25.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>We Failed The Misinformation Fight. 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