There is zero threat to democracy from 'misinformation' - anyone who has ever been on or seen a political campaign will know that misinformation is entirely part of the game. It's weird for us suddenly think that technology - social media, or artificial intelligence or anything else - substantively changes the nature of the democratic political process.
don't think it's sudden. looking at the influence of, say, tape recording technology on the 1972 Presidental election, it seems weirder to think technology hasn't affected the democratic process. Would FDR and his paralized legs been elected if TV been more widespread in 1933? And where would we be without the printing press to spread yellow journalism, throwing elections?
> There is zero threat to democracy from 'misinformation' - anyone who has ever been on or seen a political campaign will know that misinformation is entirely part of the game.
You're right, of course. Back in 1898, the yellow press, especially the Hearst-owned New York Journal, joined the chorus of American imperialists to goad the US into war with Spain[1]. We know how that worked out.
The difference today is not democracy, it's the nature and quantity of the misinformation and how it's spread and the treatment of those who seek to counter it. Researchers are subject to personal attacks such as abusive emails and threats of physical harm, and harassment through frivolous freedom-of-information requests. From the article: "Contrarian efforts have also focused on quote-mining scientists’ emails to construct conspiratorial narratives about alleged malfeasance, for example during the scandal arising from the release of stolen emails between climate scientists in 2009."
