To win against the rising tide of misinformation, advanced technology is key

MISINFORMATION and disinformation have real-world consequences. While this is not new to markets, advances in technology and access to Web-based information have heightened the threats of toxic online narratives. Without proper management, what starts as niche online chatter can easily escalate into a major crisis – and not just for brands, but for the general public, too.

Wayfair knows this all too well. In 2020, the US-based furniture retailer found itself at the centre of a bizarre conspiracy theory after an anonymous user posted in an Internet chatroom: “What if retail giant Wayfair is using pricey storage cabinets to traffic children?” This spread like wildfire from one social media platform to another. Ultimately, the hashtags #Wayfairconspiracy and #WayfairGate amassed nearly 4.5 million views on TikTok alone, and one national human trafficking hotline saw a surge in calls, straining its resources.

AI: A threat and a boon

Unfortunately for brands, things are going to get far more complicated. According to McAfee’s Threat Research Team, as artificial intelligence (AI) goes mainstream, the threat of disinformation rises. This is corroborated by the European Union Agency of Cybersecurity (ENISA) Threat Landscape Report 2022, which identified disinformation and misinformation as prime threats for 2023, whereby AI-enabled disinformation is increasingly becoming central in the creation and spreading of disinformation and can make the supply of disinformation infinite.