Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation
2024 – The Year That Dissenting Voices Were Extinguished
In order to get a perspective on these new terms, it is important to realise that in the USA, these forms of conveying information, have ALL been deemed “terrorist” acts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Australia, too, is about to introduce laws that head towards a similar association of “information” and “terrorism”.
Here is what the three terms are defined by the DHS – quote “
- Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm.
- Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.
- Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate. An example of malinformation is editing a video to remove important context to harm or mislead.
” endquote.
Misinformation
Of these three new terms, we can see that misinformation is simply information that somebody may spread as a result of ignorance on a subject. That person may not even be aware of the credibility of their sources, nor be aware of the impact to others due to sharing such information. Is this gossip, or a crime? You be the judge.
Disinformation
The second term, disinformation is a problem in society, as this is done by people who deliberately set out to deceive others. There are existing laws in all cultures to deal with these people, when they are caught. As manipulators of others, these people should be called out and exposed. Once exposed as deceitful individuals, or organisations, they will have lost their power. In years gone by, this would have been solved with responsible journalism and public exposure of the person and the act. If the deceit resulted in harm or damage, they would have been appropriately dealt with under existing criminal laws. While this behaviour is considered anti-social, it is still a far cry from being terrorism.
Malinformation
The third term is the most interesting. Malinformation “is based on fact”.
A World Immersed in Full-time Malinformation
In 1990, when I worked for a large utility company that was under media scrutiny, I was delighted when my manager was given an opportunity to be interviewed by a media organisation. He was a very knowledgeable technical expert and business analyst and I felt that we could get public respect back, once this interview was aired.
To my horror and shock, the interview was edited in such a way that the context for my manager’s answers was removed and the most of the best content to support the company was also never aired.
The news organisation was the public broadcaster for Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). In my opinion, they were guilty of the crime of “malinformation” as defined above.
Following that event, I found out that this type of behaviour happened across the board. All media outlets and all news reports and all government announcements used malinformation to sensationalise the content of their message. This behaviour was simply described as “media bias” and “spin doctoring” and was never considered a crime.
Daily Media and Government Malinformation – Leads to Questioning Minds – Leads to Wisdom
When COVID broke out, I was sceptical of the information portrayed in the media and by government. I had learned to look out for the spin doctors and sensational media reporting that I had witnessed so often in my life. I knew that I had to seek out the truth using my own initiative. As expected, the facts didn’t line up.
I saw the proliferation of malinformation, daily, by every public media channel and every government organisation, worldwide. The official malinformation turned into propaganda of a scale I have never seen before.
By the DHS’s own definition, they are all terrorists?
Of course, this is nonsense, until you realise that all you need a government, or organisation to do, is discredit all sources of the scientific, medical or political truths. Now you are left with a perfect excuse to label anybody with an inquiring mind that seeks out and finds the underlying truth, a source of “malinformation”. They are now considered the terrorists! This is how bullying works. This is what the so-called “fact checkers” do and this is how this new language is introduced into our dictionaries.
Public Awareness Needed Urgently
Awareness that this is happening under you very eyes is the first step to reversing this nonsense.