Misinformation in the context of Content creator

A false statement, also known as a falsehood, falsity, misstatement or untruth, is a statement that is false or does not align with reality. This concept spans various fields, including communication, law, linguistics, and philosophy. It is considered a fundamental issue in human discourse. The intentional dissemination of misstatements (disinformation) is commonly termed as deception or lying, while unintentional inaccuracies may arise from misconceptions, misinformation, or mistakes.

Although the word fallacy is sometimes used as a synonym for false statement, that is not how the word is used in most formal contexts.

Disinformation is false or misleading information deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. 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 coordinated campaigns 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."

In contrast, misinformation refers to inaccuracies that stem from inadvertent error. Misinformation can be used to create disinformation when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated. "Fake news" has sometimes been categorized as a type of disinformation, but scholars have advised not using these two terms interchangeably or using "fake news" altogether in academic writing since politicians have weaponized it to describe any unfavorable news coverage or information.

Content creation is the act of producing (and sharing) information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. A content creator is the person behind such works. According to Dictionary.com, content refers to "something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts" for self-expression, distribution, marketing and/or publication. Content creation encompasses various activities, including maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, article writing, photography, videography, online commentary, social media accounts, and editing and distribution of digital media. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the content thus created was defined as "the material people contribute to the online world". In addition to traditional forms of content creation, digital platforms face growing challenges related to privacy, copyright, misinformation, platform moderation policies, and the repercussions of violating community guidelines.

Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of 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. It can spread through fake news websites.

The prevalence of fake news has increased with the recent rise of social media, especially the Facebook News Feed, and this misinformation is gradually seeping into the mainstream media. Several factors have been implicated in the spread of fake news, such as political polarization, post-truth politics, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and social media algorithms.

False balance, known colloquially as bothsidesism, is a media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports. Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side, or may omit information that would establish one side's claims as baseless. False balance has been cited as a cause of misinformation.

False balance is a bias which often stems from an attempt to avoid bias and gives unsupported or dubious positions an illusion of respectability. It creates a public perception that some issues are scientifically contentious, although in reality they are not, therefore creating doubt about the scientific state of research. This can be exploited by interest groups such as corporations like the fossil fuel industry or the tobacco industry, or ideologically motivated activists such as vaccination opponents or creationists. False balance can be the result of viewpoint discrimination or political bias. Political bias can be evaluated relative to the median voter for particular topics.

The anti-gender movement is a global right-wing social movement in opposition to concepts it refers to as "gender ideology" or "gender theory". These terms are loosely defined, and encompass a range of subjects related to feminism and LGBTQ rights, as well as progressivism in general. The movement has drawn support from right-wing populist groups, religious conservative organizations, social conservatives, and the far-right worldwide. It views advancement in gender equality and gender and sexual diversity as a threat to traditional family values, religious beliefs, and established social norms.

The movement has been criticized for encouraging discrimination, undermining human rights protections, and promoting misinformation and rhetoric against LGBTQ people. The notion of a pervasive and institutionalized "gender ideology" has been described as a moral panic and conspiracy theory.

Community Notes, formerly known as Birdwatch, is a feature on X (formerly Twitter) where contributors can add context such as fact-checks under a post, image or video. It is a community-driven content moderation program, intended to provide helpful and informative context, based on a crowd-sourced system. Notes are applied to potentially misleading content by a bridging-based algorithm not based on majority rule, but instead agreement from users on different sides of the political spectrum.

The program launched on Twitter in 2021 and became widespread on X in 2023. Initially shown to U.S. users only, notes were popularized in March 2022 over misinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine followed by COVID-19 misinformation in October. Birdwatch was then rebranded to Community Notes and expanded in November 2022. As of November 2023, it had approximately 133,000 contributors; notes reportedly receive tens of millions of views per day, with its goal being to counter propaganda and misinformation. According to investigation and studies, the vast majority of users do not see notes correcting content. In May 2024, a study of COVID-19 vaccine notes were deemed accurate 97% of the time.

Sense about Science is a United Kingdom charitable organization that promotes the public understanding of science. Sense about Science was founded in 2002 by Lord Taverne, Bridget Ogilvie and others to promote respect for scientific evidence and good science. It was established as a charitable trust in 2003, with 14 trustees, an advisory council and a small office staff. Tracey Brown has been the director since 2002.

The organisation works with scientists and journalists to put scientific evidence in public discussions about science, and to correct unscientific misinformation. They encourage and assist scientists to engage in public debates about their area of expertise, to respond to scientifically inaccurate claims in the media, to help people contact scientists with appropriate expertise, and to prepare briefings about the scientific background to issues of public concern.