As reports of last week’s fire on Canfield Mountain and the subsequent ambush of firefighters began to flow, misinformation began spreading almost faster than the flames themselves. North Idaho residents reported reading inaccurate updates on critical details of the shooting, including the number of victims, the number of perpetrators and the identities of those involved.
Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review
Misinformation spreads through society much like a contagious disease, rapidly moving through social networks and influencing beliefs, behaviors and confirming biases, a College of Charleston study shows. This process, known as social contagion, is especially potent online, where repeated exposure to false information shapes what people see as normal or widely accepted.
The Conversation
From medically unqualified influencers pushing expensive supplements online, to nurses peddling myths about pregnancy, the author had to find out all she could about PCOS on her own.
The Guardian
Well-known AI chatbots can be configured to routinely answer health queries with false information that appears authoritative, complete with fake citations from real medical journals, Australian researchers have found.
Reuters
Denmark is taking steps toward enacting a ban on the use of “deepfake” imagery online, saying such digital manipulations can stir doubts about reality and foster misinformation.
The Associated Press
In September 2021, anti-vaccine groups on social media, including X, falsely claimed hospitals were murdering COVID-19 patients by withholding treatments like ivermectin, convincing some families to attempt removing critically ill loved ones from ICUs.
The Integrity Project
Federal agencies are rehiring and ordering back from leave some of the employees who were laid off in the weeks after President Donald Trump took office as they scramble to fill critical gaps in services left by the Department of Government Efficiency-led effort to shrink the federal workforce.
CNN
The dominance of social media platforms, coupled with heightened distrust of traditional news outlets, allows leaders rapid dissemination of unfiltered information and propaganda, that leverages fear, instills division, and exploits confirmation biases to manipulate public opinion and consensus.
The Integrity Project
The media agency overseen by Kari Lake plans to lay off more than 600 more journalists in a move that reporters for Voice of America said “spells the death” of the organization that began operations during World War II.
Arizona Republic / USA Today
Israel versus Palestine. Liberals versus conservatives. The Mets versus the Yankees. Whichever we favor, we’ve come to believe that our unwavering, religious-like allegiance is not only normal and unavoidable, but advantageous: stemming from an evolutionary adaptation that allowed our species to survive over time.
TIME Magazine
In classic Westerns, the good guys wore white hats and the villains wore black. It was a visual shorthand: white hats meant honor, justice, and doing the right thing—no matter how messy the frontier got. Over time, the term migrated from the dusty plains of cowboy cinema to the glow of computer screens.
The Integrity Project
A recent Washington Post interactive feature laid bare a grim portrait of where America is headed—or, more precisely, where we already are. The piece traces the widening rift between Americans over the use of military force against civilians, the normalization of extreme immigration crackdowns, and the way these once-fringe authoritarian tactics are now openly endorsed by large segments of the public.
The Integrity Project
Astroturfing, a term borrowed from marketing, refers to the creation of fake grassroots campaigns. In the media context, it involves fabricating a publication that looks and acts like a legitimate news source but serves a hidden agenda—political, ideological, or financial.
The Integrity Project
More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found. People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation.
The Guardian
What is going on in Los Angeles? Depends on whom you ask. Word to the wise: Don’t ask Fox News. The outlet would have you believe that the entire city of Los Angeles is in flames, that immigrants have taken over everything, that mass chaos reigns.
The Arizona Republic / USA Today Network
Historians warn, “authoritarian governments in all corners of the world are trying to construct their own version of the past, passing laws that make their versions of history the only ones allowed”, and the United States is not immune to such pressures. In recent years, a wave of political rhetoric and conspiracy theory has sought to recast two defining events in modern U.S. history .
The Integrity Project
The American health system is bleeding out, and it desperately needs a real doctor. Leading Health and Human Services (HHS) today is like navigating a chaotic hospital — patients in every hallway, monitors screaming, seconds ticking away. Yet, instead of a seasoned physician who triages and trusts proven protocols, that hospital is overseen by an activist named Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Fox News
Farmers in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota have culled millions of fowl to prevent the avian flu outbreak from spreading. Conspiracy theorists online have made life for farmers even more difficult as they deal with the problem.
The Associated Press
The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.
ProPublica
It is not often that cold, hard facts determine what people care most about and what they believe. Instead, it is the power and familiarity of a well-told story that reigns supreme. Whether it’s a heartfelt anecdote, a personal testimony or a meme echoing familiar cultural narratives, stories tend to stick with us, move us and shape our beliefs.
The Conversation
