The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(October 2018) |
Rumor control centers (RCC) and rumor control mechanisms, identify, investigate and mitigate potentially disruptive rumors, capable of driving a cycle of harmful escalation. Rumor control centers, which often operate call centers, respond to crisis situations such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, or civil disturbances.
The well-developed crisis control centers established during the Cold War were among the earlier examples of effective rumor control mechanisms. [1] In the United States, during the civil rights movement, rumor control centers were set up and operated with the assistance of the Community Relations Service (CRS), [2] a "peacemaker" agency created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rumor control centers have been established in the United States at different levels of governance, including municipal, regional, state-wide and national. Permanent rumor control centers serve a specific, local population, and have often been set up in response to specific incidents.
Social media makes it easier for rumors to spread, and more difficult for rumor control and fake news to be managed. By 2018, "rumor cascades" were under investigation as stories with serious inaccuracies were spread by millions of people." [3]
According to a 2004 article by Heidi Burgess and Michelle Maiese, rumors—"knowledge gaps" with "serious inaccuracies" or "misinformation—can drive the cycle of destructive escalation" and contribute to making situations more disruptive. [1] These rumors can be spread "through the mass media—television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet." [1] First, Brugess and Maisse list three phases of a rumor control process. The first step requires a mechanism through which trusted, trained "rumor agents"—usually those experienced and active in conflict resolution—identify the most recent rumors in circulation. [1] The second step requires a strategy for establishing the truth and/or falsehood of the rumors. These "rumor investigators" may also be rumor reporters. Thirdly, there is a need for mechanisms whereby the inaccurate reports can be replaced with reliable information. [1]
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Nieman Lab [4] cited a Science report by MIT researchers that by March 2018, "fake news both reached more people than the truth and spread faster than the truth." [Notes 1] The MIT researchers based their conclusions on "126,000 'rumor cascades' spread by about 3 million people". [3] : 1146
Since 2007, Facebook has made attempts to combat rumor cascades by partnering with independent, third-party fact-checkers to identify inaccurate news stories, and to flag them with warning labels to caution users before sharing them. [5] [6] [7] [Notes 2]
FEMA created the Hurricane Florence Rumor Control and the Hurricane Michael Rumor Control centers in response to the rumors surrounding Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael. [8]
Brugess and Maisse described the Cold War crisis control centers as the "best-developed examples of rumor control mechanisms." They were "confidence-building measures aimed to prevent incomplete information about the actions of opposing military forces from escalating into a violent and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union". [1] In his 1983 publication, Beyond the Hotline: Crisis Control to Prevent Nuclear War, William L. Ury described how a crisis control system was created during the Cold War, "jointly staffed by U.S. and Soviet military and diplomatic officers." [9] [10] [1] A hotline was established, which provided "direct" and "immediate" communication [1] to alleviate some of the "above-normal risk of nuclear war" through "notification procedures for accidental missile launches". [1] [9]
Rumor control centers were established during the civil rights movement in the United States using Community Relations Service (CRS) mediators, who provided reliable telephone numbers, (early call centers), where new rumors could be reported, assessed and the results of the assessment accessed. [2] [11] The trusted rumor agents were either CRS, police departments, city officials, or "people with authority." [2] In a 1999 interview, Manuel Salinas, who served as mediator for CRS from 1968 to 1988, [Notes 3] said, [2]
[I]f people heard of something, the community could call that number and say, "Hey we heard that fifty cars are coming down the highway," and we would verify that and say "yes" or "no". So rumor control involved getting as accurate information as possible, so that if anybody would call we could convey the correct information. Because rumors begin when you have something like that and they are way off the wall, but the person doesn't know that until you try to find out if it's true or not. The press might call, too. So that's what rumor control was about.
— Manuel Salinas. Community Relations Service (1999)
The first rumor center in the United States was established in July 1967 by the City of Chicago. [12] : 57 "An office was equipped with a radio, television and type-writer, and a large map of the city hung on one of the walls. Ten telephone lines were also installed, including direct lines to the Police Department and Mayor's Office. Local government officials encouraged citizens to call the Center if they heard a "rumor"—defined as information unverified by official sources—that suggested social tensions in the city were increasing. [12] : 57 The Seattle Rumor Center was established by the "citizen-directed" State Council of Churches, in response to the rise of racial tension in 1968. The Rumor Center was operated "to stop the spread of rumors that might cause tension, panic or bring harm to an individual or group of persons, particularly in situations involving race relations." The Center closed in 1973 "because the need had changed and government agencies had developed methods for dealing with rumor control." [13] [14]
By the end of the 1960s, a hundred cities across the United States had established RCCs. [12] [15] Local government, the private sector, and volunteers funded and operated the RCCs. [12] : 57 [15]
On the eve of the Iraq War in the early 2000s, rumors and inaccuracies spread in the U.S. regarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including the false information, now known as the Niger uranium forgeries, regarding Iraq's attempted uranium purchase from Niger. According to Burgess and Maiese, the Niger rumor, "was one of the many reasons" "the U.S. administration decided that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, or at least the ability to make them. This rumor later proved to be false, as did most of the other "facts" surrounding Iraq's WMD program. While the problems that led to the Iraq war were deeper than simple rumors, rumor control efforts might have played a significant role in slowing down the U.S.'s march to war". [1]
The United States Community Relations Service (part of the Department of Justice) uses rumor control teams when mediating domestic racial conflicts. [1]
The Community Relations Service (CRS) was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a "peacemaker" to respond to potential ethnic or racial disputes that might result from the Act. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] Among other things, the CRS, "worked with law enforcement, city officials, and community members to establish rumor control mechanisms to prevent the spread of false and inflammatory information." [17]
Heidi Burgess and Guy Burgess, directors and founders of the Conflict Information Consortium (CIC) based at the University of Colorado, continue to edit and direct the Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project (BI) website as an extension of the CRInfo website. [21] [22]
The U.S. had rumor control agencies at the national, state, regional, county, and municipal levels.
According to their report, the CRS collaborates with individual states, local government agencies, public and private entities, and community organizations to "develop local capacity to prevent racial and ethnic tensions." CRS conciliators initiate "rumor control to prevent misinformation from spreading throughout a community". [23] : 3 The DOJ says that the CRS continues to work with officials at the municipal and state level, including law enforcement, and community organizers to help coordinate "safe marches and protests through rumor control mechanisms, self-marshal training, logistical planning, and on-site mediation services". [24]
In his book describing the CRS history from 1964 to 1989, Bertram J. Levine described how a Rumor Control Center was set up in preparation for the May Day 1970 massive protest of the New Haven Black Panther trials on the New Haven Green near both the courthouse and Yale University. [25] [26] [27] Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote that the purpose of counterintelligence action—COINTELPRO (1956–1971)—is to disrupt the Black Panther Party and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge." [28] Jack Middleton—a "seasoned community relations professional" with training in setting up and running an RCC—had helped design and operate a New Haven community-based RCC specifically for the 1970 protest. Levine said that the RCC—operated by Yale Divinity School volunteers in close collaboration with municipal information sources including local police—was a "textbook" example of an RCC run by a private organization. Middleton's manual on RCCs served as a template across the United States for many years. Levine said that the RCCs "played a vital role in limiting chaos during civil disorders." [16] : 115
In 2009, after the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, [29] [30] which expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law, the CRS's mandate "expanded to include assisting communities in preventing and responding to alleged violent hate crimes committed on the basis of "actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and disability". [31]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency created a Rumor Control website to combat misinformation about the November 2020 election. [32] [33]
The Iowa Department of Homeland Security has public emergency information distribution plans which include rumor control centers [34]
The city of Baltimore, Maryland, has a permanent Rumor Control Center. [35] [36]
Alachua County, Florida, has a Rumor Control Center which was activated in 1990, after the serial murders of five local college students .
The City of Coral Springs, Florida, maintains a Rumor Central page. [37] [38] [39] [40]
Several federal and state rumor control web sites were launched in 2020 to combat misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [41] [42] [43] [44]
Social media makes it easier for rumors to spread, [45] : 79 and more difficult for rumor control to be managed. By 2018, "rumor cascades" [Notes 4] were under investigation as stories with serious inaccuracies were spread by millions of people (Vosoughi et al. 2018:1146)." [3]
By 2013, research rumor spreading and control was often based on models used in epidemiology, such as SI (susceptible (S), infected (I)), SIR (susceptible (S), infected (I), resistant (R)) models, and more recently, the SEIR model which includes "the flows of people between four states: susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I), and resistant (R)". [46] [47] [48]
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive and propagated information. Early definitions of misinformation focused on statements that were patently false, incorrect, or not factual. Therefore, a narrow definition of misinformation refers to the information's quality, whether inaccurate, incomplete, or false. However, recent studies define misinformation per deception rather than informational accuracy because misinformation can include falsehoods, selective truths, and half-truths.
Rape crisis centers in the United States, usually capitalized as Rape Crisis Center and often abbreviated as RCC, are community-based organizations affiliated with the anti-rape movement in the U.S. Rape crisis centers in other countries offer similar services, but have different histories and vary in their organizational structure.
Mediatization is a method whereby the mass media influence other sectors of society, including politics, business, culture, entertainment, sport, religion, or education. Mediatization is a process of change or a trend, similar to globalization and modernization, where the mass media integrates into other sectors of the society. Political actors, opinion makers, business organizations, civil society organizations, and others have to adapt their communication methods to a form that suits the needs and preferences of the mass media. Any person or organization wanting to spread messages to a larger audience have to adapt their messages and communication style to make it attractive for the mass media.
The Community Relations Service (CRS) is part of the United States Department of Justice. The office is intended to act as a peacemaker "for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and disability." It was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and its mission was broadened by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Originally under the Department of Commerce, it was moved to the Department of Justice by order of President Johnson.
Filippo Menczer is an American and Italian academic. He is a University Distinguished Professor and the Luddy Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University. Menczer is the Director of the Observatory on Social Media, a research center where data scientists and journalists study the role of media and technology in society and build tools to analyze and counter disinformation and manipulation on social media. Menczer holds courtesy appointments in Cognitive Science and Physics, is a founding member and advisory council member of the IU Network Science Institute, a former director the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, a senior research fellow of the Kinsey Institute, a fellow of the Center for Computer-Mediated Communication, and a former fellow of the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Turin, Italy. In 2020 he was named a Fellow of the ACM.
The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of modern Russian 'political warfare'". Notably, contemporary Russian propaganda promotes the cult of personality of Vladimir Putin and positive views of Soviet history. Russia has established a number of organizations, such as the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests, the Russian web brigades, and others that engage in political propaganda to promote the views of the Russian government.
Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, North Macedonia, and Romania, among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.
A troll farm or troll factory is an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making.
Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term "fake news" was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. It has also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.
Fake news in India refers to fostering and spread of False information in the country which is spread through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.
False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.
Media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has varied by country, time period and media outlet. News media has simultaneously kept viewers informed about current events related to the pandemic, and contributed to misinformation or fake news.
During a time of social distancing and limited contact with others, social media became an important place to interact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media platforms helped the world remain connected, largely increasing its usage. Individuals isolated at home turned to social media to maintain their relationships and access entertainment to pass time faster. While social media offers a platform for connection and coping, it also raises concerns about its use as a primary means of social interaction, especially under constrained circumstances.
An infodemic is a rapid and far-reaching spread of both accurate and inaccurate information about certain issues. The word is a portmanteau of "information" and "epidemic" and is used as a metaphor to describe how misinformation and disinformation can spread like a virus from person to person and affect people like a disease. This term, originally coined in 2003 by David Rothkopf, rose to prominence in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.
Disinformation attacks are strategic deception campaigns involving media manipulation and internet manipulation, to disseminate misleading information, aiming to confuse, paralyze, and polarize an audience. Disinformation can be considered an attack when it occurs as an adversarial narrative campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies. Disinformation attacks use media manipulation to target broadcast media like state-sponsored TV channels and radios. Due to the increasing use of internet manipulation on social media, they can be considered a cyber threat Digital tools such as bots, algorithms, and AI technology, along with human agents including influencers, spread and amplify disinformation to micro-target populations on online platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and YouTube.
Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A high proportion of internet sources on the topic are "inaccurate on the whole" which can lead people searching for information to form "significant misconceptions about vaccines".
Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines consists of disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic propagated by various sources.
Facebook or Meta Platforms has been criticized for its management of various content on posts, photos and entire groups and profiles. This includes but is not limited to allowing violent content, including content related to war crimes, and not limiting the spread of fake news and COVID-19 misinformation on their platform, as well as allowing incitement of violence against multiple groups.
This is a quick-read version of a 1984 report to the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency from the Nuclear Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School. It calls for moving beyond the present "hotline" between Moscow and Washington to a crisis control center jointly staffed by U.S. and Soviet military and diplomatic officers.
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(help)Examined "the emergence of Rumor Control Centers (RCCs) across the US in the 1960s. There are a number of contemporary corollaries of RCCs in operation today.