7 types of misinformation & disinformation

Misinformation and disinformation span a spectrum of harmfulness. These types, from low harm to high harm, include:

Satire/parody: Satire/parody is typically meant to spread humor instead of harm. However, it can be used to spread rumors, conspiracies, and divisions.

Clickbait: Some websites use enticing headlines — "clickbait" — to encourage users to click on the article. However, the article's content often doesn't match the headline. Since many users don't click through to the article, clickbait headlines can cause confusion.

Misleading content: Misleading content often does not include all information needed to understand the full context of an issue. It can include partial quotes, inaccurate representations of statistics, deceptive graphics, or improperly cropped photos.

False context: At times, content creators take genuine images, videos, or other information and deliberately share them with false framing. The images or information may be real, but the context is not.

Imposter content: Some who spread disinformation use well-known logos and graphics to brand false information. For example, an imposter news website may use a logo from an established news site to spread false news.

Manipulated content: Manipulation of content ocurs when genuine content is altered; this happens most often with photos and videos.

Fabricated content: Fabricated content is information that is completely false. This includes computer-generated images and videos, or "deepfakes."

All types of misinformation contribute to "information pollution," which weakens our society and government.