#misinformation

#misinformation

After Diddy's acquittal, social media decided it needed a villain. And who better than a random woman?! Through a case of mistaken identity, digital marketing strategist and former journalist Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh, who had nothing to do with the trial, became the target of viral accusations and lies. In this episode, Wynter tells her story of how misinformation, speculation, and Internet outrage collided in real time

"I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it," President Donald Trump said at the start of his 20-minute Wednesday evening national address, soon adding, "We had men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody," barely a minute into his speech. "For the last four years, the United States was ruled by politicians who fought only for insiders, illegal aliens, career criminals, corporate lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists and, above all, foreign nations," he said, "They indoctrinated your children with hate for America."

In January 2026, Wikipedia will turn 25 years old, a reminder that one of the internet's most‑visited sites began as an experiment many experts assumed would fail. It grew from a simple idea to more than 65 million articles in over 300 languages not by ignoring criticism, but by listening: adding quality controls, building policies, and keeping humans at the center of oversight and content creation.

The rumour began circulating in mid-December, mostly on Facebook. The main post, circulated by Jonathan Gregory, who has more than 80,000 followers, claims that Nick "had recently begun transitioning into a woman". The post goes on to wildly claim that his fictional transition was what led him to his attack his parents. There is no evidence to support the claim that Reiner is transitioning, and a closer look at the Facebook post shows there is no factual basis.

Confirmation bias is when people only believe information that reinforces what they already believe. For example, vaccine opponents may only believe information about vaccines being unsafe, and will reject any contrary information or facts. Confirmation bias is one reason people find it hard to let go of their belief in misinformation. Misinformed people often trust virtual or online sources, such as social media or podcasts. However, misinformation is increasingly coming from state and federal government agencies.

As Gavin Newsom ramps up his almost certain campaign for president, and polls put him in contention for the Democratic Party's nomination in 2028, he has become a favorite target of right-leaning commentators on network television and in YouTube videos and social media. While some criticism is grounded in fact and reasonable differences, there's also a substrata of highly exaggerated, even fictional, output.

A large, independent study published in the prestigious journal PNAS suggests that crowd-sourced fact-checking to a platform's users can work spectacularly well at stopping lies from spreading. "We've known for a while that rumors and falsehoods travel faster and farther than the truth," said Johan Ugander, an associate professor of statistics and data science in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, deputy director of the Yale Institute for Foundations in Data Science, and co-author of the new study.

Grok's track record is spotty at best. But even by the very low standards of xAI, its failure in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia is shocking. The AI chatbot has repeatedly misidentified 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who heroically disarmed one of the shooters, and claimed the verified video of his deed was something else entirely - including that it was an old viral video of a man climbing a tree.

CNN anchor Jessica Dean, at about 5:11 p.m. ET, reported one suspect was in custody. That report was based on one of the notifications from Brown's campus alert system, which was retracted minutes later by the university. President Donald Trump similarly posted on Truth Social the FBI is on the scene and that the suspect is in custody although Brown University put out a conflicting notification right after, saying the suspect had not been apprehended.

Jennings's article focused on people using TikTok gain a more in-depth knowledge of ADHD. "Arguably no part of mental health TikTok is as omnipresent or as fraught as ADHD TikTok," Jennings wrote - and addressed one of the biggest challenges that arose from its prominence, namely: at what point does getting advice from an app overtake getting actual medical advice?

Earlier this week, the Washington Post announced that it would be launching "personalized" AI powered podcasts that would let users choose their own AI host to regale them on their choice of topics. And now for an entirely unsurprising update: the AI podcasts have turned out to be complete, error ridden disasters. Semafor reports that less than 48 hours after launching, the AI podcasts have sparked outrage among the WaPo's rank and file and editors alike.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

This was the year when artificial intelligence's full potential roared into view, and when it became clear that there will be no turning back or opting out,

As such, the Washington Post announced this week that it's launching an AI-based podcast service that allows listeners to pick their own format and even their own disembodied AI host. The "Your Personal Podcast" is now available to users on the newspaper's mobile app as of today - but whether anybody will pick up on the company's offer to be inundated with potentially misinformed AI slop remains to be seen.

AI will help us navigate the immense amounts of information and data created every day in the modern world, but it will also make it easier for bad actors to swamp the infosphere with disinformation. AI can enable real-time translations to spread ideas seamlessly across language barriers, but it may also make the marketplace of ideas less pluralistic by concentrating power in a few individuals.

Across Europe we are witnessing an escalation in hybrid threats - from physical through to cyber - designed to weaken critical national infrastructure, undermine our interests and interfere in our democracies all for the advantage of malign foreign states,

Everybody wants the news, but they don't want it the news, if that makes sense. Audiences want updates, stories and insights, but they increasingly find them in places that look less like traditional journalism and more like entertainment or branded content. Streaming business news outlets like TBPN, Cheddar and even CNBC show how blurred the line between journalism and promotion has become. But if those platforms illustrate the gray area, Diaper Diplomacy shows what happens when news crosses fully into entertainment.

If the moon were to suddenly turn to cheese, the movie pitches would be insufferable. Astronauts would be irritated, grad students would be demoralized and news articles would overflow with terrible puns. The great jaws of the Internet would get hold of the details, churning out doomsday scenarios, memes and conspiracies. And that's even before the moon cheese would start to compress, creating geysers of material and a dangerously unstable lunar landscape.