It's always been possible to make false claims on the Internet, and anonymity has always been possible to hide your identity or claim you're someone you're not. And when social media entered the story it made it easy for anyone to become a content creator and proclaim anything they wanted to, whether true or not.
In 2016 the nonpartisan global policy think tank RAND Corporation published a piece called "The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It" that outlined ways Russia was flooding the internet and social media with false claims, and why this technique — which featured a lack of consistency or relationship to truth — was effective in both creating confusion and getting people to tune out because there was just too much information swirling around.
The online world has continued to advance, and Large Language Models have given people the ability to not only create images and videos that aren't real, but create AI Agents that can spread information on the internet that unsuspecting readers would have no way of knowing was false, or being spread by a non-human AI agent.
So, we talk with one of the researchers behind the 2016 perspective to learn how it came about, how they did their research, and what it means through the lens of today, far beyond Russian propaganda.
Guest:
Dr. Miriam Matthews, Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.