IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2022 - 60

Technological Stewardship and Responsible Innovation
other researchers have pointed to how, in some
cases, because political figures can use disinformation
to their own advantage, addressing disinformation
through policy may, in such circumstances,
be counter-productive to their political objectives
[24]. Despite the challenges, many proposals have
been developed providing recommendations on
how to curtail disinformation (and regulate digital
platforms, more broadly), including notably calls to
legislate platform transparency requirements. McCarthy,
for instance, argues that transparency measures
should be the first best step in reducing the spread
of harmful content by requiring digital platforms to
share knowledge on their content moderation practices,
thereby providing feedback to regulators that
would enable them to measure compliance, and
also motivating companies to improve their content
moderation practices [25]. According to Tworek
and Wanless, although there are increasing calls for
more platform transparency, it is often not clear what
exactly is meant by " transparency, " or what it would
look like practically, leaving much of the details to
multistakeholder working groups to determine [26],
[27]. Transparency requirements may also result in
unintended consequences, for instance, platforms
prioritizing certain types of content moderation
to prove their efficacy [28]. Other more technical
measures have also been recommended, including
the incorporation of so-called " accuracy nudges " on
social media, presented to users to curtail sharing
materials flagged as false [29].
Much of these discussions in the scholarship on
disinformation, however, have centered around
the role of public content on social networking
sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on)
and not private messaging apps or services (e.g.,
WhatsApp, Signal, Viber, and so on). Many of these
apps are designed with end-to-end encryption (E2E),
which prevents anyone other than the sender and
recipient of a message from viewing its content.
Although the feature provides several cybersecurity
benefits, it may also contribute to the limited
research since it poses obstacles for researchers to
gain access to data including those who use computational
methods to study the flow of disinformation
[30]. However, there is some research traction
being made more recently [31], [32]. In India, for
instance, researchers have used machine learning to
identify the extent to which images propagating disinformation
on several WhatsApp group chats were
60
prevalent [33]. Similar methods were also used in
another study that explored the prevalence of image
disinformation on WhatsApp in the context of both
the Brazilian and Indian elections [34]. Others, such
as Trauthig and Wooley [30], have used qualitative
in-depth interviews to research disinformation on
messaging apps; their participants represented diaspora
communities in the United States, revealing
how such groups of populations often become targets
and victims of disinformation. Evangelista and
Bruno [32], on the other hand, use ethnography,
immersing themselves in the political discussions
taking place in various WhatsApp groups during the
period of the 2018 Brazilian elections and revealing
the targeted ways in which disinformation spreads
and further contributes to what they call the " radicalization
of Brazilian politics. "
Key terms
While the phenomenon of disseminating false
information to serve a political or economic objective
is not new, nor is it exclusively a product of digital
innovation [35], digital technologies and their
users, including both human actors and bots, have
significantly enhanced the scale and speed of its
distribution.
There are several terms used within disinformation
scholarship that are related, yet distinct. Disinformation
has been defined as false information
deliberately sent with the intent to deceive an audience,
often to serve political objectives. This is to be
distinguished from misinformation: false information
that is distributed unknowingly [16], [36]. It is, therefore,
possible for disinformation to spread further
unknowingly as misinformation by a sender. The
two concepts are often used interchangeably and
can be difficult to distinguish in practice. Another
related term is propaganda, which can include both
false or accurate information that is used to promote
a specific agenda [16]. Other terms exist and have
been used to describe disinformation including
several linked to the state military practices such
as " information warfare, " " information operations, "
and " influence operations " [37].
Although these definitions are important, we do
not believe that the distinction between misinformation
and disinformation is as salient for the purposes
of this study. Our survey respondents are not asked
to distinguish between misinformation and disinformation,
as it is difficult to do so in practice; our goal,
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2022

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