Monday 4th October: Disinformation is a business

October 04, 2021

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We see the social harms wrought by concerted disinformation campaigns every day, from vaccine hesitancy to the storming of the US Capitol. But it's also big business. At the AOP’s Crunch 4.4 event on disinformation, Global Disinformation Index co-founder Clare Melford said that around $235 million in ad revenue goes to disinformation sites each year. “Disinformation is a business, a profitable one.”

With consumers becoming better informed about the realities of disinformation, the media and advertising industries are being urged to clean up the digital advertising ecosystem to remove the financial incentive for the creation of disinformation.

Regulation is high on the list of solutions being proposed, but getting buy-in from publishers in particular won't be easy. “No reputable news company wants to disseminate hate but there was a rebellion against [oversight]." The problem is, if they don't fix this, they won't be seen as 'reputable' for much longer.

Interestingly, the Knight Foundation has just published a new report that shows how younger audiences are looking hard at the veracity of their online news sources and how discerning readers consume more news. Hopefully the writing is on the wall for publishers pushing out poorly sourced nonsense.

Over on The Fix, David Tvrdon is highlighting the see-saw nature of the technology news cycle. Basically, we clamour for the latest product innovations from the Big Tech companies, then we rail the dodgy dealings involved in Big Tech's product development processes. He wonders if regulation will fix the problem or simply stifle competition?

Some proper content management geekery included in this Press Gazette Future of Media Technology session. Fun fact: The Sun runs two completely different content management systems for print and online while the Times uses the same CMS for both.

This week's podcast:

This week we hear from Kaya Yurieff, The Information’s Creator Economy Reporter. We talked about how she covers an industry that is so new and sprawling, some of the challenges of being a creator, and how it fits with The Information’s other coverage.

We won't pretend Instagram will be a major audience driver for us any time soon. But if you'd like to punctuate your friend's endless holiday snaps with occasional witticisms from us, do give us a follow.