Who Is Responsible When We Believe Misinformation?
Who Is Responsible When We Believe Misinformation?
Imagine you were told by an online friend that your mother was in critical condition at the hospital, and so you panicked and rushed to the hospital. When you arrived, you found out that they had fabricated the claim, and there was no emergency in the first place. While, of course, there are other factors that may cause us to believe misinformation online, such as the reliability of the information, it raises the important issue of believing friends, news stations, and articles online without finding out if it’s true or not.
Receiving information is an important part of our lives, as it helps us understand what is going on in the world with its everyday news.
We must first understand the two types of false information. False information mainly stems from two variables: deliberate lies and honest errors. This is important to understand and distinguish so that we may understand if the source providing the information is knowingly guilty or not. This helps give us the understanding necessary to give a proper judgement if the source is truly trustworthy or not.
Let’s start with honest errors. Honest errors happen when the source doesn’t give clear information by leaving out parts or just didn’t research further enough to completely understand the subject to an understandable standing. On the other hand, deliberate lies are much more serious, as you are purposely giving misinformation, which could result in huge consequences. For example, what if I told you that there was no school tomorrow and you believed me? Then, there was school tomorrow, and you suddenly remembered you had homework due but forgot about it because I told you there wasn’t school tomorrow.
Who is liable for this misinformation? I believe the person, the platform, and the reader all have liability when misinformation is involved. The person that shares it, being deliberate or not, must acknowledge the mistake that was made and make sure to check if the information they are spreading is true or false. The platform being liable is debatable. Platforms should always try their best to prevent the spread of misinformation, and some of them have features that allow for liability checks. For example, Twitter, also known as X, has a feature known as Community Notes that may add clarity or missing information. And lastly, should the reader be held liable? Yes, because you are the person that is reading the information, and if you don’t fact-check it yourself, then it should be your own responsibility that you believed the news without properly taking the appropriate steps to make sure what you read is true.
As such, I believe that information should always be fact-checked before you believe it. Ensuring what you read is the truth and what you do with that information won’t result in unforeseen consequences helps a lot. So, heading back to my scenario, if it were me, I would ask my friend for proof of how they knew of my mother’s condition and also call other people, like my family members or the hospital, to make sure.
Aaron Mckinney
