Detection, Deterrence, and Prevention of Mis- and Disinformation by Victoria L. Rubin; 15 April 2022
Abstract. This talk frames the problem of deceptive, inaccurate, and misleading information in the digital media content and information technologies as a socio-technological problem of an infodemic. Mis- and disinformation proliferate online, yet the solution remains elusive and many of us run the risk of being woefully misinformed in many aspects of our lives including health, finances, and politics.

A conceptual infodemiological framework, the Rubin (2019) Misinformation and Disinformation Triangle, posits three minimal interacting factors that cause the problem – susceptible hosts, virulent pathogens, and conducive environments. Disrupting interactions of these factors requires greater efforts in educating susceptible minds, detecting virulent fakes, and regulating toxic environments.

Given the scale of the problem, technological assistance as inevitable. Human intelligence can and should be, at least in part, enhanced with an artificial one. We require systematic analyses that can reliably and accurately sift through large volumes of data. Such assistance comes from artificial intelligence (AI) applications that use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). This talk will outline some existing work and promising directions in the use of automated ways of detecting various types of fakes online.

The complexity in finding solutions to the socio-technological problem of mis- and disinformation lies in our human nature. The mind requires practical skills and digital literacy in order to overcome this problem. Socio-political and economic systems incentivize the spread of the infodemic across toxic digital media environments and require the public’s effort in legislating and regulating appropriate controls. A package of countermeasures to mis- and disinformation are put forward for educational, AI-based, and regulatory interventions.

These claims and arguments are developed in full eight chapters of the upcoming book: