Studying disinformation is a little like being a virologist: The object of your investigation is challenging to detect, the symptoms can vary widely, and most importantly the source can be difficult to identify. This is especially true when studying disinformation about a virus.
Unlike misinformation, disinformation isn’t simply inaccurate: It’s actively designed to mislead. On social media, the two can appear identical, as the message is sometimes the same. In practice, both can be just as dangerous, especially now. Factual information is essential to public health, particularly when it comes to something as urgent as how we respond to the novel coronavirus spreading in our communities. Online disinformation during a health crisis has literal life-or-death consequences for people in the real world. It’s easy to point at foreign actors like the Russians and Chinese for spreading disinformation across social media. It would also be accurate but incomplete. Sadly, foreign actors aren’t the biggest danger. We Americans are.
