Table Of ContentM M
isinforMation atters
What is “misinformation”? Why does it matter? How does it spread on the
internet, especially on social media platforms? What can we do to coun-
teract the worst of its effects? Can we counteract its effects now that it is
ubiquitous? These are the questions we answer in this book. We are living
in an information age (specifically an “algorithmic age”) which prioritizes
information “quantity” over “quality.” Social media has brought billions of
people from across the world together online and the impact of diverse plat-
forms, such as Facebook, WeChat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Signal, WhatsApp,
Gab, Instagram, Telegraph, and Snapchat, has been transformational.
The internet was created, with the best of intentions, as an online space
where written content could be created, consumed and diffused without any
real intermediary. This empowering aspect of the web is still, mostly, a force
for good. People, on the whole, are better informed and online discussion
is more inclusive because barriers to participation are reduced. As activity
online has grown, however, an expanding catalogue of research reveals a
darker side to social media, and the internet generally. Namely, misinforma-
tion’s ability to negatively influence our behaviour both online and offline.
The solution we provide to this growing dilemma is informed by Ludwig
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which examines the relation-
ship between language and reality from a philosophical perspective, and
complements Claude Shannon’s Information Quantity Theory, which
addresses the quantification, storage, and communication of digital infor-
mation from a mathematical perspective. The book ends by setting out a
model designed by us: a “Wittgensteinian” approach to information quality.
It defines content published online by clarifying the propositions and claims
made within it. Our model’s online information quality check allows users
to effectively analyse the quality of trending online content. This approach
to misinformation analysis and prevention has been designed to be both easy
to use and pragmatic. It upholds freedom of speech online while using the
“harm principle” to categorise problematic content.
M
isinforMation
M
atters
Online Content and Quality
Analysis
Uyiosa Omoregie
Kirsti Ryall
First edition published 2023
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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© 2023 Uyiosa Omoregie and Kirsti Ryall
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Omoregie, Uyiosa, author. | Ryall, Kirsti, author.
Title: Misinformation matters : online content and quality analysis /
Uyiosa Omoregie, Kirsti Ryall.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022048220 (print) | LCCN 2022048221 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032311555 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032311562 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003308348 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Social media. | Misinformation. | Information literacy.
Classification: LCC HM742 .O467 2023 (print) | LCC HM742 (ebook) |
DDC 302.23/1--dc23/eng/20230110
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022048220
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022048221
ISBN: 978-1-032-31155-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-31156-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30834-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003308348
Typeset in Caslon
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
Contents
Preface ix
about the authors xiii
chaPter 1 IntroductIon 1
Online Platforms’ Existential Crisis 1
Economic Impact of Misinformation 5
Falsehood Travels Fast 6
The Algorithmic Age 6
Computationalism 9
Notes 10
chaPter 2 background 11
A Brief History of Falsehood Propagation 11
The Invention of the Printing Press and
(Mis)information Propagation 12
From Mass Media to Fragmented Media 12
Social Media’s Turn from Democracy to Authoritarianism 13
Propaganda 14
Crisis Discipline 16
Note 16
chaPter 3 a PhIlosoPhIcal aPProach 17
Facts, Belief, Opinion and Truth 17
Leibniz and Frege on “Truth” and “Fact” 17
Checking for “Truth” and “Fact” Online through Analysis 18
Decision and Action 20
William James’ Live/Dead Hypotheses 21
v
vi Contents
W.V. Quine on Two Dogmas Obstructing Pragmatism 21
Bertrand Russell’s Scepticism 22
Frank Ramsey’s Principle 23
The Connection between Wittgenstein and Ramsey 24
Philosophy of Information 25
Our Own Model 26
Note 26
chaPter 4 InterventIons 27
Content Moderation 27
Behavioural Nudges 28
Information Quality Ranking versus Algorithmic Ranking 30
How Facebook’s News Feed Works (Facebook 2021) 30
Twitter’s Switch to Algorithmic Ranking of Content 30
Vanity Metrics and Quality Metrics 31
Bridging-Based Ranking of Content 31
Algorithmic Choice 31
Receptive Reading and Participatory Restraint 31
Media/Information/News/Digital Literacy 32
Natural Language Processing, AI and Misinformation
Prevention 33
GPT-3 Language Model 34
chaPter 5 analysIng the Problem 37
Origins of Modern Logic and Language Processing Systems 37
The Chomsky-Norvig Debate 38
AI Limitations and Prospects 40
Father of the Information Age 41
Information Quality Theory 43
Free Speech and the Harm Principle 46
The Harm Principle 2.0 46
Free Speech, Free Reach, Free Expression and
Free Impression 49
The Misinformation Challenge 49
A Systems Approach to Misinformation Analysis 51
Misinformation and Malinformation 52
Off-information and Non-information 56
Wittgenstein’s Approach 57
The Key Theses in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 58
Notes 60
chaPter 6 the global onlIne InformatIon
QualIty check model 63
How Does This Analytical Model Work? 66
We Foresee Three Ways of Using Our Proposed Model 68
chaPter 7 conclusIon 69
aPPendIx: detaIled survey QuestIons and results 71
Contents vii
glossary of terms 75
bIblIograPhy 79
further readIng 89
Index 93
Preface
The study presented in this short monograph began in the early
months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Via social media, we
received an avalanche of misinformation and personal messages on
the subject of the virus, the pandemic, treatments, and government/
state responses from a number of friends, acquaintances, colleagues
and relatives. This kick-started an ongoing conversation online
between the two of us about the problems caused by the rapid spread
of misinformation. Which, in turn, segued into our throwing back
and forth possible ways of counteracting misinformation without it
always ending up in online arguments and lectures, none of which
are ever that successful. At least, not in our experience. Eventually,
we came up with the idea of creating a simple checklist for social
media users to help them better screen content received and filter out
misinformation.
The internet is a place where online written content can be created,
consumed and diffused without any real intermediary. The World
Wide Web (the web) was conceived and designed originally as a plat-
form that “should remain an open standard for all to use and that no-
one should lock it up into a proprietary system” (CERN 2022). This
empowering aspect of the web is generally a force for good.
Central to this monograph are two concepts: information quan-
tity theory, brilliantly espoused by Claude Shannon (father of the
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