Synthetic Lies: Understanding AI-Generated Misinformation and Evaluating Algorithmic and Human Solutions

Large language models have abilities in creating high-volume human-like texts and can be used to generate persuasive misinformation. However, the risks remain under-explored. To address the gap, this work first examined characteristics of AI-generated misinformation (AI-misinfo) compared with human creations, and then evaluated the applicability of existing solutions. We compiled human-created COVID-19 misinformation and ed it into narrative prompts for a language model to output AI-misinfo. We found significant linguistic differences within human-AI pairs, and patterns of AI-misinfo in enhancing details, communicating uncertainties, drawing conclusions, and simulating personal tones. While existing models remained capable of classifying AI-misinfo, a significant performance drop compared to human-misinfo was observed. Results suggested that existing information assessment guidelines had questionable applicability, as AI-misinfo tended to meet criteria in evidence credibility, source transparency, and limitation acknowledgment. We discuss implications for practitioners, researchers, and journalists, as AI can create new challenges to the societal problem of misinformation. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Youth recommendations for early intervention responses by governments for future pandemics

Aims: During the pandemic, youth were particularly vulnerable to experiencing financial hardship, education and employment disruption, and mental health impacts. Ensuring governments and services are prepared to support youth during future outbreaks or novel pandemics should be a key priority. This work aimed to explore youth experiences during COVID-19 and gather youth opinions on government responses to inform planning, policy, and decision-making for future pandemics. Method(s): Youth (ages 15-25) from Ireland and two provinces in Canada (British Columbia and Ontario) were interviewed at three time points during the COVID-19 pandemic. A thematic analysis was conducted using an inductive approach. This research was primarily youth-led and developed. Result(s): Across all three time points, youth experienced mental health and service uptake challenges, with mixed views on pandemic response. Opportunities for personal and societal growth were identified, with desire for incorporating youth voices into governmental decision making processes. Youth offered recommendations for effectively communicating accurate information, prevention of misinformation, and expressed needs regarding service accessibility throughout the pandemic and beyond. Conclusion(s): This work provides insights into the opinions of young people on government and information sharing during the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations were developed to ensure youth are consulted and represented in future pandemics.

Investigation of high school students' motivation for physical activity participation and eating attitude levels during the COVID-19 period

The aim of this study is to determine the motivation of high school students to participate in physical activity and their eating attitude levels during the COVID-19 period as well as to examine the relationship between the two variables. In addition, it was also determined whether the motivation for participate in physical activity and eating attitudes differ according to gender, weekly exercise, spending time with technology, family communication times, and participation in exercise during and before the pandemic. A total of 576 high school students, including 406 girls and 170 boys, participated in the study. "Motivation Scale for Participation in Physical Activity (MSPPA)", "Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40)" and "Personal Information Form (KBF)" were used as data collection tools. Data were evaluated using correlation, multiple linear regression, MANOVA and t-test analysis techniques. It was concluded that the motivation of the students to participate in physical activity was moderate, and they did not have eating disorders. It was observed that physical activity motivation did not predict eating attitude, but there were positive and low relationships between sub-factors in relational dimension. According to gender, it was determined that the eating attitudes of female students were more positive than male students. It has been found that the motivation to participate in physical activity is higher for those who exercise before and during the pandemic than those who do not. Consequently, it can be said that during the COVID-19 process, high school students' motivation to participate in physical activity is at a moderate level, and their eating attitudes are generally not at the level of behavioral disorders.

A qualitative study exploring how youth use TikTok to learn about mental health and mental health services in British Columbia, Canada

Aims: Youth are increasingly seeking health information through online platforms, such as websites, social media, and online forums. TikTok emerged as a popular platform for disseminating and consuming health information during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this study aimed to explore how youth used TikTok to access information about mental health and mental health services during the pandemic. Method(s): Twenty-one interviews were conducted over Zoom with youth (ages 12-24) who lived in British Columbia, Canada and had accessed TikTok for mental health information during the pandemic. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Result(s): Youth described TikTok as a safe place to talk about mental health and share personal experiences. This helped youth feel less alone with their struggles and facilitated conversations about mental health with friends, family, and service providers. Participants also described how mental health content on TikTok helped them be more mindful of their own mental health and the different resources and coping strategies available and encouraged them to seek services. For those hesitant or unable to access services, TikTok provided immediate support. Youth appreciated the ease of accessing this information, given the platform's engaging and digestible format (i.e., short videos) and predictive nature of its algorithm. However, participants expressed concerns with the spread of misinformation and the lack of verifiable information on the platform. Conclusion(s): TikTok is as a practical platform to disseminate mental health information to youth. However, efforts to establish strategies for preventing and reporting misinformation are warranted.

Pandemics and infodemics: How COVID-19 is reshaping content regulation

The debate about tackling online misinformation and disinformation is not unique to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the health crisis has elevated the danger of misleading information circulated on social media. Labelled as 'infodemic', the problem of COVID-19-related misinformation and disinformation prompted governments and social media platforms around the globe to impose various speech restrictions. The public and private policy frameworks aiming to curb the spread of the infodemic were adopted in a state of emergency and without proper scrutiny. Yet, they are shaping the future of content regulation, possibly affecting freedom of speech and other democratic values for years to come. This chapter looks at the key problematic aspects of actions taken by governments and social media platforms to address COVID-19-related misinformation and disinformation and discusses the possible long-term effects of these measures. © 2023 the authors.

Who Does Not Benefit from Fact-checking Websites?: A Psychological Characteristic Predicts the Selective Avoidance of Clicking Uncongenial Facts

Fact-checking messages are shared or ignored subjectively. Users tend to seek like-minded information and ignore information that conflicts with their preexisting beliefs, leaving like-minded misinformation uncontrolled on the Internet. To understand the factors that distract fact-checking engagement, we investigated the psychological characteristics associated with users' selective avoidance of clicking uncongenial facts. In a pre-registered experiment, we measured participants' (N = 506) preexisting beliefs about COVID-19-related news stimuli. We then examined whether they clicked on fact-checking links to false news that they believed to be accurate. We proposed an index that divided participants into fact-avoidance and fact-exposure groups using a mathematical baseline. The results indicated that 43% of participants selectively avoided clicking on uncongenial facts, keeping 93% of their false beliefs intact. Reflexiveness is the psychological characteristic that predicts selective avoidance. We discuss susceptibility to click bias that prevents users from utilizing fact-checking websites and the implications for future design. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Health literacy and empowerment in the COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a teachable moment to empower citizens to assess and apply information to protect their health by promoting critical health literacy. Most Americans took preventive measures, suggesting some overall increase in critical health literacy around infectious disease. Simultaneously, however, a torrent of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation intentionally buried facts, sewed doubt and confusion, promoted lies and conspiracies, and undermined health authorities and institutions. The authors discuss how this ‘infodemic' rose from previously localized, unconnected anti-vaccination, anti-government, and anti-science groups galvanized by the pandemic. Prominent politicians seeking political gain lent the power of their offices to the movement, layering a ‘polidemic' onto the infodemic and overwhelming inconsistent public health messaging. Even those with strong health literacy skills were challenged. Millions were misled to over-confidently self-manage their risk, revealing the possibility and perils of empowerment in the absence of critical health literacy skills – negative empowerment. The roots of resistance to the government response to COVID-19, and conditions that fostered its influence are examined, followed by recommendations to position health literacy scholars and practitioners to better meet communication challenges and opportunities in future crises. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Information Services & Use is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Analyzing COVID-Related Social Discourse on Twitter using Emotion, Sentiment, Political Bias, Stance, Veracity and Conspiracy Theories

Online misinformation has become a major concern in recent years, and it has been further emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, can be serious vectors of misinformation online. In order to better understand the spread of these fake-news, lies, deceptions, and rumours, we analyze the correlations between the following textual features in tweets: emotion, sentiment, political bias, stance, veracity and conspiracy theories. We train several transformer-based classifiers from multiple datasets to detect these textual features and identify potential correlations using conditional distributions of the labels. Our results show that the online discourse regarding some topics, such as COVID-19 regulations or conspiracy theories, is highly controversial and reflects the actual U.S. political landscape. © 2023 ACM.

In different worlds: The contributions of polarization and platforms to partisan (mis)perceptions

Partisanship, polarization, and platforms are foundational to how people perceive contentious issues. Using a probability sample (n = 825), we examine these factors in tandem across four political claims concerning US presidential elections and the COVID-19 pandemic. We find Democrats and Republicans differ in their belief in true and false claims, with each party believing more in pro-attitudinal claims than in counter-attitudinal claims. These results are especially pronounced for affectively polarized partisans. We also find interactions between partisanship and platform use where Republicans who use Google or Twitter are more likely to believe in false claims about COVID-19 than Republicans who do not use these platforms. Our findings highlight that Americans' beliefs in political claims are associated with their political identity through both partisanship and polarization, and the use of search and social platforms appears critical to these relationships. These findings have implications for understanding why realities are malleable to voter preferences in liberal democracies. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Media & Society is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Cloaked science: The Yan reports

This paper describes a 2020 disinformation campaign promoting the unsubstantiated claim that the novel coronavirus is the product of a Chinese bioweapons program. Exploiting a vulnerability in open-access scientific publishing, the campaign was based on papers posted to an online preprint repository designed to accelerate the diffusion of scientific knowledge. This provided the campaign with an air of scientific legitimacy, helped it reach millions of Americans, and muddied public discourse over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. This case study offers insights into the tactics and practices of media manipulation, the contested nature of modern epistemic systems, the interplay of technical and social systems, and the vulnerability of open systems to manipulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

CovidMis20: COVID-19 Misinformation Detection System on Twitter Tweets Using Deep Learning Models

Online news and information sources are convenient and accessible ways to learn about current issues. For instance, more than 300 million people engage with posts on Twitter globally, which provides the possibility to disseminate misleading information. There are numerous cases where violent crimes have been committed due to fake news. This research presents the CovidMis20 dataset (COVID-19 Misinformation 2020 dataset), which consists of 1,375,592 tweets collected from February to July 2020. CovidMis20 can be automatically updated to fetch the latest news and is publicly available at: https://github.com/everythingguy/CovidMis20. This research was conducted using Bi-LSTM deep learning and an ensemble CNN+Bi-GRU for fake news detection. The results showed that, with testing accuracy of 92.23% and 90.56%, respectively, the ensemble CNN+Bi-GRU model consistently provided higher accuracy than the Bi-LSTM model. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Misleading Beyond Visual Tricks: How People Actually Lie with Charts

Data visualizations can empower an audience to make informed decisions. At the same time, deceptive representations of data can lead to inaccurate interpretations while still providing an illusion of data-driven insights. Existing research on misleading visualizations primarily focuses on examples of charts and techniques previously reported to be deceptive. These approaches do not necessarily describe how charts mislead the general population in practice. We instead present an analysis of data visualizations found in a real-world discourse of a significant global event - Twitter posts with visualizations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, violations of visualization design guidelines are not the dominant way people mislead with charts. Specifically, they do not disproportionately lead to reasoning errors in posters' arguments. Through a series of examples, we present common reasoning errors and discuss how even faithfully plotted data visualizations can be used to support misinformation. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Reinforcement Learning-based Counter-Misinformation Response Generation: A Case Study of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

The spread of online misinformation threatens public health, democracy, and the broader society. While professional fact-checkers form the first line of defense by fact-checking popular false claims, they do not engage directly in conversations with misinformation spreaders. On the other hand, non-expert ordinary users act as eyes-on-the-ground who proactively counter misinformation - recent research has shown that 96% counter-misinformation responses are made by ordinary users. However, research also found that 2/3 times, these responses are rude and lack evidence. This work seeks to create a counter-misinformation response generation model to empower users to effectively correct misinformation. This objective is challenging due to the absence of datasets containing ground-truth of ideal counter-misinformation responses, and the lack of models that can generate responses backed by communication theories. In this work, we create two novel datasets of misinformation and counter-misinformation response pairs from in-the-wild social media and crowdsourcing from college-educated students. We annotate the collected data to distinguish poor from ideal responses that are factual, polite, and refute misinformation. We propose MisinfoCorrect, a reinforcement learning-based framework that learns to generate counter-misinformation responses for an input misinformation post. The model rewards the generator to increase the politeness, factuality, and refutation attitude while retaining text fluency and relevancy. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation shows that our model outperforms several baselines by generating high-quality counter-responses. This work illustrates the promise of generative text models for social good - here, to help create a safe and reliable information ecosystem. The code and data is accessible on https://github.com/claws-lab/MisinfoCorrect. © 2023 Owner/Author.

The role of 'non-knowledge' in crisis policymaking: a proposal and agenda for future research

Background: Recent complex and cross-boundary policy problems, such as climate change, pandemics, and financial crises, have recentred debates about state capacity, democratic discontent and the 'crisis of expertise'. These problems are contested and open to redefinition, misunderstanding, spin, and deception, challenging the ability of policymakers to locate, discriminate, comprehend, and respond to competing sources of knowledge and expertise. We argue that 'non-knowledge' is an under-explored aspect of responses to major policy crises. Key points: While discussed in recent work in sociology and other social sciences, non-knowledge has been given less explicit attention in policy studies, and is not fully captured by orthodox understandings of knowledge and evidence use. We outline three main forms of non-knowledge that challenge public agencies: amnesia, ignorance and misinformation. In each case, 'non-knowledge' is not simply the absence of policy-relevant knowledge. Amnesia refers to what is forgotten, reinvented or 'unlearned', while claims of ignorance involve obscuring or casting aside of relevant knowledge that could (or even should) be available. To be misinformed is to actively believe false or misleading information. In each instance, non-knowledge may have strategic value for policy actors or aid the pursuit of self-interest. Conclusions and implications: We demonstrate the relevance of non-knowledge through a brief case study, emerging from the inquiry into the COVID-19 hotel quarantine programme in the Australian state of Victoria. We argue that both amnesia and 'practical' forms of ignorance contributed to failures during the early part of the programme. © Policy Press 2023.

Finding Fauci How Visual and Textual Information Varied on Cable News Networks During the Covid-19 Pandemic

As the Covid-19 pandemic progressed, the public increasingly relied on news outlets to provide up-to-date health information. Often times this information was provided by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the course of on-air interviews. Consequently, when Dr. Fauci appeared less and less, many became concerned that the public was not receiving the full picture, especially since Dr. Fauci was often not afraid to voice concerns over how the pandemic was being handled at the federal, state and local level. Using text and image data from 6,587 CNN, Fox News and MSNBC programs, this paper determines the extent to which Dr. Fauci appeared on air and whether the rate of his appearances (or lack thereof) diminished over time. We then look at whether Dr. Fauci's appearances (or lack thereof) are conditioned on what is being said during broadcasts. Not only do we find that Dr. Fauci appeared significantly less on Fox News, but this discrepancy increases as the pandemic progresses and when public health information is discussed. Regardless of whether this constitutes "misinformation” or "framing,” our study speaks volumes to two important research areas and broader concerns over the balance of Covid-19 coverage, especially when the public needed it the most. © Bryce J. Dietrich & Hyein Ko.

COVID-19 Infodemic and Misinformation: A Global Review and Implications for Zimbabwe

The advent and rapid spread of the coronavirus resulted in the need and demand for timely and reliable information about the contagion. The absence of such information led to a massive COVID-19 infodemic paddled on different forms of media. Myths, conspiracies, rumours and misinformation about the disease rapidly spread across the globe causing panic, anxiety, racism and sometimes false hope. The chapter examines the different sources of COVID-19 misinformation that led to the infodemic and then analyses the implications of the infodemic on Zimbabwe. The chapter uses secondary data in the form of available documents and reports on COVID-19 misinformation. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The results show that COVID-19 infodemic is one of the factors that have prolonged and intensified the pandemic. This is because there was an overabundance of false information, especially on social media platforms, which made it difficult for affected people to get reliable guidance when they needed it. Zimbabwe, like most African countries, has been equally impacted because there is limited capacity to counter health misinformation. There are no specific indicators permitting the monitoring of misinformation and its impact. There is therefore a need for different stakeholders in the country to partner in the development of robust infodemic management strategies and/or policies. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Doing your own research and other impossible acts of epistemic superheroism

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an "infodemic” of misinformation and conspiracy theory. This article points to three explanatory factors: the challenge of forming accurate beliefs when overwhelmed with information, an implausibly individualistic conception of epistemic virtue, and an adversarial information environment that suborns epistemic dependence. Normally we cope with the problems of informational excess by relying on other people, including sociotechnical systems that mediate testimony and evidence. But when we attempt to engage in epistemic "superheroics” - withholding trust from others and trying to figure it all out for ourselves – these can malfunction in ways that make us vulnerable to forming irrational beliefs. Some epistemic systems are prone to coalescing audiences around false conspiracy theories. This analysis affords a new perspective on philosophical efforts to understand conspiracy theories and other epistemic projects prone to collective irrationality.

Misinformation as a Societal Problem in Times of Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Study with Future Teachers to Promote a Critical Attitude towards Information

Global society is facing major challenges, which are to be met by pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Digitalization processes bring many opportunities for achieving SDGs, but they also bring pitfalls. For example, on one hand, social media makes it easier for more parts of society to participate. On the other hand, the ability to rapidly circulate unfiltered information can lead to the spread of misinformation and subsequently interfere with the achievement of SDGs. This effect could be observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to occur in the context of climate change. Young people are especially likely to be exposed to misinformation on social media. With this in mind, it is enormously important for schools to prepare young people to critically handle the overload of information available online. The aim of this study was to provide future middle and high school teachers with a fruitful approach to foster a critical attitude towards information in classrooms. To this end, we expanded an existing approach by implementing active, technique-based inoculation and technique-based debunking within the COVID-19 content framework in a teacher education course. This implementation was monitored by a mixed-methods study with n = 24 future middle and high school teachers who participated in two courses in subsequent semesters. By performing statistical analysis on pretests and posttests and qualitative content analysis on reflective journal entries, we found that future teachers' self-efficacy expectations for detecting and debunking misinformation, as well as their debunking skills, increased throughout the courses. In addition, our results show that future teachers perceive active, technology-based inoculation as a helpful approach for their future teaching. They feel that this approach can be a way to implement education for sustainable development in schools with a focus on the promotion of critical thinking. In summary, we believe that the approach presented in this article may be beneficial for teaching the critical treatment of information in various thematic contexts. © 2023 by the authors.

Mental health status of military healthcare workers in shelter hospitals in Shanghai during the epidemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron variant and its influencing factors.

Objective To investigate the mental health status of military healthcare workers in shelter hospitals in Shanghai during the epidemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron variant and its influencing factors. Methods A total of 540 military healthcare workers in shelter hospitals in Shanghai were investigated with patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Athens insomnia scale (AIS) to explore their mental health status, and logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors. Results A total of 536 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective rate of 99.3% (536/540). The incidence of depression, anxiety and insomnia among military healthcare workers in shelter hospitals in Shanghai was 45.5% (244/536), 26.1% (140/536) and 59.5% (319/536), respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that whether people resided in Shanghai, the proportion of negative information in daily browsing information and diet status in shelter hospitals were the influencing factors of depression, anxiety and insomnia (all P<0.05);age and confidence in the future of Shanghai were the influencing factors of depression and insomnia (all P<0.05);and the time spent daily on epidemic-related information was an influencing factor of insomnia (P=0.021). Conclusion The incidence of depressive, anxiety and insomnia among military healthcare workers in shelter hospitals in Shanghai is high during the epidemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron variant. Psychological consequences of the epidemic should be monitored regularly and continuously to promote the mental health of military healthcare workers.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.

A puzzle of epistemic paternalism

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and fake news about the virus have abounded, drastically affecting global health measures to oppose it. In response, different strategies have been proposed to combat such Covid-19 collective irrationalities. One suggested approach has been that of epistemic paternalism – non-consultative interference in agents' inquiries for their epistemic improvement. While extant literature on epistemic paternalism has mainly discussed whether it is (ever) justified, in this paper, I primarily focus on the potential implementation of widespread epistemically paternalistic policies (such as no-platforming and censorship) and its consequences. I argue that pursuing epistemic paternalism to combat Covid-19 collective irrationalities leads to a hitherto unnoticed puzzle for proponents of epistemic paternalism. Central to the puzzle is the idea those (governments, corporations, social media giants) who actually can (i.e., have the requisite power to) enact widespread epistemically paternalistic policies seem the institutions who are least suited to having such informational control over the populace. Thus, epistemic paternalism appears a sword without a hilt;while it may prove an effective strategy in tackling Covid-19 collective irrationalities, we do not have any way to use it without incurring serious risks.