The Problem of Misinformation Essay Sample

As of today, our democracy and its people suffer many threats to our society and liberty, and one of those threats are misinformation, one of the major rooting causes of unreliability to our democracy. Misinformation has caused democracy to dwell under its named for what it has caused, it motivates evil and causes foolish acts to our people, destroying our democracy, and brainwashes them and makes them believe a real life fantasy come true without any research on the background of what is portraying. With today's Corona virus spreading throughout the United States, some have taken advantage of misinformation to display Corona virus details to our democracy in a horrific way. Our democracy Is made of people who work together to tackle things down, without our people being active with current society, no civic participation can be done, and that’s what our democracy runs on. Is there a way we can fight this state of emergency and a clarify our way to a better democracy?

To begin, misinformation has caused widespread controversy with Corona in the media on our phones or any other electronic news wire, because of these devices to receiver our news, many rely on it every day, American Progress states, “Malicious actors capitalize on confusion, fear, and sorrow online for profit and political gain, intentionally spreading falsehoods and conspiracy and stoking engagement among social media users.” The people of democracy want to stay safe from the current pandemic, but with corona virus still being a new threat to the United Sates, disnifoamration has increased it potential. People who are trying to find ways to stay safe end up getting information that is misleading, and it causes more harm than good, if people can’t stay in good health during this pandemic, their is no way our democracy can work and progress. One of the misinformation about Covid that was leaked brought uprise on fear, CISA states, “misinformation campaigns have promoted false narratives that 5G technology suppresses immune systems and that 5G spectrum bands spread the virus.” In 2020 it was announced that 5G was an upcoming cell tower, online manipulatives used 5G as misinformation to disrupt democracy and bring fear, saying that 5G will enhance and give Covid. Nothing or less, people believed it, and caused it to spread even more, continuing the misinformation across the country. 

Not just because misinformation is a threat to democracy, it’s one of the most widely used practices and has affected us majorly with Covid, OECD states, “Research has also shown that COVID-19 misinformation is disseminated significantly more widely than information about the virus from authoritative sources like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The CDC is our top information giver of real Covid facts and it has been shadowed by misinformation websites, democracy relies on the CDC to give information, but when it’s overcast by misinformation, people are left disinformed and unprotected. News sites like CNN, NBC, and Fox News bring us information, but in some casses pop up ads and or disinformed websites can be present on the sites, OECD states, “Moreover, some platforms present news content alongside non-news, ads and user-generated content. This can make it difficult for users to distinguish reliable news.” Most of the news than can be received on these suspicious ads can be misinformation, which in this case can bring Covid advise to our democracy in a disrupt way, people will end up getting the wrong information and present unreasonable acts, many more can get sick, or possible injure themselves. Democracy wants to keep up and running with society, if noting is reasonable it will not be able to continue without misinformation controlled. 

Some people might disagree with the fact that misinformation is not a threat to our democracy and just a different opinion, but the fact is, is that it’s contributed in making our country the highest rating in Covid patients in the entire world. Because people will listen to more of misinformation that’s around more than any other reliable website, people don’t want to get vaccinated, they don’t wanna wear masks, they think the virus is like the flu, it gets around their head, that’s why misinformation is one of the leading causes of covid deaths in the United States because of disinformed people. Democracy cant revolve around this threat, it’s people will suffer and there will be no contribution to our society. 

What misinformation has caused to our democracy has made a big impact on us today, people will go believe anything they see without a source, take it, then spread it even more, misinformation has even contributed into making Covid into a bigger problem by spreading lies that has caused damage to people and democracy. In order to have misinformation from continuing from damaging our democracy and its people from covid, there must be solutions do slow down the problem. One solution that can be made is an misinformation detector, a detector that can scan any website and find if the sources are reliable and approved, it can tell the user if this website is contaminated with misinformation, and tell the user to avoid this website. This action can slow down the process of misinformation reaching even more audience that was intended. Another action to fight off misinformation is to do your own research before you find a conclusion to something new you just learned, by doing this, you are stopping the spread of disinformed website by not sharing the information to more people, informing other people about what is true and showing evidence will teach them to back off from websites like these. If these practices are worked by the people of democracy, the problem can be slowed down, misinformation is a threat that will not completely be avoided, in some other form it will be presented, that’s why we should all take caution of what we learn, if it’s from a device, newspaper or some other form. Democracy will keep on fighting to eliminate misinformation if we all work together.