Misinformation carried by social media is again confounding the public

By John Park

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The last quarter of 2024 has been chaotic: with the rise of the candidates for the upcoming presidential election, there has been numerous reports of every action the candidates are taking in live time. As reported by Peter Adams with the News Literacy Project, “Over the last 14 months, the Project has gathered more than 600 examples of fake, A.I. generated, and misleading pieces of content, everything from fake celebrity endorsements to altered headlines made to look like they're from real news sources and more ”(Adams, 2024). As mentioned above, as the 2024 presidential election has huge significance, it is integral to accept only the information that has been filtered and confirmed. Involvement of the A.I should decrease in the information we encounter. Since the public heavily relies on the media for information, the news must have a restriction of misleading source or content. 

Mass media typically has high accessibility and anonymity, which allows the public to freely express their opinions on the vast ocean of information. Additionally, with its malleability, it has been a key to communication in the modern era. However, such characteristics of the media have been a double-edged sword, when it comes to the 2024 Presidential election. 

Propaganda and misinformation during the 2024 Presidential election has been more detailed and more realistic than ever before due to the introduction of advanced AI programs. “But if someone's able to deepface the sound of a loved one or a candidate you trust or a local official, you might be deceived” (Dan, 2024). AI allows people to fake someone’s face or even voice, leading to the dissemination of more realistic and absurd misinformation. Especially older people who are not familiar with this new technology will be more gullible, falling for exaggerated and uncertain information.

Furthermore, during the Covid-19 pandemic, mass media played the role of conveying information to people in their quarantine. Since information in the mass media can be made by various people, misinformation was also mixed in those liquidity information. For example, the most common misinformation was about vaccines. Many people believed ‘vaccines have microchips’ or ‘vaccines are examinations held by the government’ type of misinformation. “Lies about Covid and the election have reportedly cost some prominent doctors and news anchors their jobs. Millionsof dollars have been awarded in civil courts to victims of disinformation” (Brandy, 2024). Those information during the crisis cost many things, some of the people lost faith towards the pharmaceutical companies. 

As stated above, misinformation is widely dispersed in the world of social media and causing diverse problems, with significant impact on the presidential election 2024. While the media has disseminated information, it is a double edged sword as disparate generations and anonymous people access and publish information about wrong facts. Aggressive and sensational misinformation can cause serious conflicts between two different thoughts of politics. Government or an information platform must continue chasing these provocations in order to protect voters from leading to wrong ideas. I believe that if misinformations can not be prevented and keeps diffusing, they can cause a serious political crisis, resulting in a dichotomy of opinion. Government should stand up and prevent the ongoing societal dilemmas. 

“Disinformation Poses an Unprecedented Threat in 2024 - and the U.S. Is Less Ready than Ever.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 18 Jan. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/disinformation-unprecedented-threat-2024-election-rcna134290.

“Misinformation Is a Danger in the 2024 Election. This Group Is Helping Voters Recognize It.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/how-to-recognize-election-misinformation-danger/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

“This Election Year, Fighting Misinformation Is Messier and More Important than Ever.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/monitor/2024/01/trends-fighting-misinformation-disinformation-election-year. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.