Abstract for: Dynamics of Disinformation

Disinformation can change people’s beliefs and opinions and even spur real-world action. Disinformation campaigns have become a major influence across societal issues, with effects on things like public health, stability, and international tensions. The internet and social media have facilitated the growth of disinformation, dramatically changing the speed and interconnectedness of the world’s communication networks. Influential communications can now reach large populations very quickly, and messaging transforms as it is shared by different people. Influence campaigns, including disinformation (intentionally false or misleading information) and misinformation (false or misleading information), are difficult to counteract. This talk will discuss how system dynamics can help us to understand and solve problems related to disinformation and other influence campaigns.