The deluge of online misinformation is overloading the xchange of ideas upon which democracies depend. Many have argued that echo chambers are increasingly constricting the ability of alternative perspectives to provide a check on one’s viewpoints (Sunstein 2009; Pariser
2011; Sunstein 2002). Suffering fragmentation and declining
public trust, the Fourth Estate struggles to carry out its traditional editorial role of distinguishing fact from fiction (Pew
Research Center 2017). Within this context, fake news, conspiracy theories, and deceptive social bots proliferate, facilitating the manipulation of public opinion.
Research Challenges of Digital
Misinformation: Toward a
Trustworthy Web
Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Alexios Mantzarlis,
Gregory Maus, Filippo Menczer
; The deluge of online and offline misinformation is overloading the exchange
of ideas upon which democracies
depend. Fake news, conspiracy theories,
and deceptive social bots proliferate,
facilitating the manipulation of public
opinion. Countering misinformation
while protecting freedom of speech will
require collaboration across industry,
journalism, and academe. The Workshop on Digital Misinformation — held
in May 2017, in conjunction with the
International AAAI Conference on Web
and Social Media in Montreal — was
intended to foster these efforts. The
meeting brought together more than
100 stakeholders from academia,
media, and tech companies to discuss
the research challenges implicit in
building a trustworthy web. In this article, we outline the main findings from
the discussion.
