Grappling with misinformation and disinformation
DIGITAL
As society grapples with the abundance of ‘news’ and what to believe or not, DIGI has launched a new code of practice that commits a diverse set of technology companies to reducing the risk of online misinformation causing harm to Australians.
DIGI is a not-for-profit industry association advocating for the digital industry in Australia.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) presented a paper in June last year – Misinformation and news quality on digital platforms in Australia: A position paper to guide code development – to address this issue.
In its Executive Summary, ACMA wrote: “Digital platforms are a key source of news and information for many Australians. However, Australians remain concerned about the accuracy and trustworthiness of news and information they consume online.
“Research from 2020 found that 48 per cent of Australians rely on online news or social media as their main source of news, but 64 per cent of Australians remain concerned about what is real or fake on the internet.”
The Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation has been adopted by Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Redbubble, and TikTok.
In its brief, DIGI said all signatories commit to safeguards to protect Australians against harm from online disinformation and misinformation, and adopting a range of scalable measures that reduce its spread and visibility.It is worth noting that there is a difference between misinformation and disinformation.
Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is communicated regardless of an intention to deceive.
Examples of misinformation are false rumours, insults, and pranks. Disinformation is false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive. This is a subset of misinformation.
The English word disinformation is a loan translation of the Russian dezinformatsiya, derived from the title of a KGB black propaganda department.
DIGI added: “Participating companies also commit to releasing an annual transparency report about their efforts under the code, which will help improve understanding of online misinformation and disinformation in Australia over time. The first set of transparency reports will be published in May, 2021.
“We (DIGI) developed this code with assistance from the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Media Transition, and First Draft, a global organisation that specialises in helping societies overcome false and misleading information. The final code has been informed by a robust public consultation process.
“The Code was developed in response to the Australian Government policy announced in December 2019, where the digital industry was asked to develop a voluntary code of practice on disinformation, drawing learnings from a similar code in the European Union.”