The internet can significantly amplify the spread of disinformation and misinformation. Together with the potential of virtual world to create alternative realities, this represents a threat to individuals and to political institutions.
Misinformation refers to false or misleading content shared without harmful intent though the effects can be still harmful. Disinformation refers to false or misleading content that is spread with an intention to deceive or secure economic or political gain, and which may cause public harm. These issues are not limited to the real world and can also occur in social networks and virtual worlds.
The potential reach of false information can be immense before its falsehood is exposed. The consequences of mis- and disinformation, especially if they are validated by figures that represent authority in virtual worlds, can damage trust, incite conflicts, and even lead to real-world repercussions. One dangerous form of disinformation in virtual spaces is the use of generative manipulated media, such as "deepfakes", a deceptive way of employing artificial intelligence (AI) to convincingly replicate someone's voice or face in videos, even fabricating events that never occurred. For example, individuals could use this technology to replicate and edit the speech of a politician or a famous personality with malevolent intentions. The proliferation of generative AI tools and the relative ease of creating false images, audio and videos may also undermine public debate by creating plausible deniability even for content that is entirely unaltered.
How to detect false or misleading information?
The best way to detect disinformation in virtual worlds is by cross-checking information you may find there with fact-checking articles and different media outlets. In the case of deepfakes, a way to cross-check is by using technical solutions that tell you if something is created using generative AI. Watermarks, metadata identifications, cryptographic methods for proving provenance and authenticity of content, logging methods, fingerprints or other techniques may also help you to identify if a source of information is trustworthy or not.
The European Commission is funding, through the Horizon Europe research programme, state-of-the-art research on AI tools to detect and fight disinformation. Some examples are the project “AI4DEBUNK - Participative Assistive AI-powered Tools for Supporting Trustworthy Online Activity of Citizens and Debunking Disinformation” that is developing a web plug-in that will use advanced artificial intelligence to detect disinformation in virtual worlds, and the project “TITAN -Fighting disinformation with Critical Thinking & AI tools” that is developing an intelligent coaching model or chatbot for upskilling people in assessing disinformation.
Read more information about how the European Commission is tackling online disinformation.
How to report false or misleading information?
Should you come across information that you might consider as false or misleading during your visit to a virtual world, one of the best ways to stop it spreading is by reporting it as disinformation using the tools available for reporting in the platform or contacting platform moderators.
Key actions for fighting disinformation are critical thinking, digital literacy and sharing information in a responsible manner as individuals.
Fact-checkers play also an important role for the detection, analysis and exposure of disinformation campaigns. EDMO has mapped fact-checking activities in Europe and you can contact fact-checking organisations in your country to signal content that you might consider false or misleading. You may also contact your competent Digital Services Coordinator.
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