A Short History of Misinformation-at-Scale and Efforts to Mitigate It

This commentary investigates the social construction of misinformation-at-scale by charting the diverse content moderation methods adopted by social media companies between 2016–2021, when perceptions about social media harming public health and political outcomes became a major public issue. The concept of “misinformation” refers to false or inaccurate information. Misinformation-at-scale occurs when false information is amplified online and shared by politicians, journalists, public figures, or other densely networked actors, whose engagement turns false claims into public controversies. This situation creates a paradox for social media companies and their users. On the one hand, the business model of social media companies is to increase engagement without consideration of the veracity of the content. As a result, content moderation methods have focused on reducing the speed and scale of misinformation, but not rooting it out entirely. On the other hand, users increasingly depend on social media companies for access to TALK (timely, accurate, local knowledge), which is difficult to discover, especially during breaking news or on contested subjects. This commentary documents this history and discusses ways to address this challenge posed by misinformation-at-scale.