News/analysis/US surge update
Welcome to The Spectrum of Misinformation newsletter with misinformation news, analysis & practical advice for communicators.
In News digest, read about misinformation attacks on Europe and USAID, independent news cuts, AI chatbots crashing the headlines, Indian social media crackdown, Canadian health misinformation on the rise. Find out how the latest US moves threatens public health in US surge update: RFK Jr, discover who's behind fake news in Meet the Generator and swot up with Recommended reading & Previously on the spectrum.
News digest
The Guardian reports JD Vance made a series of false claims about European governments in his Munich Security Conference speech, including that they censor media and annul elections. He blamed: “old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation”.
CBS News covers Trump's misleading claims about USAID payments to Poltico and "fake news media" as part of attacks on the agency.
NBC News details Musk sharing conspiracy theories about USAID and making unevidenced claims it is "evil" and "a criminal organization" as he attempts to shut it down. Kate Starbird commented influencers often collaborate with their audiences: "Not only are they shaping the content and flow of those conspiracy theories, but [they are also] making hugely impactful decisions and shaping the structure of political institutions based upon them.”
The Guardian warns the USAID funding freeze will result in the decline of independent news, as the agency supports 6,200 journalists and 707 non-state news outlets in over 30 countries, with the vacuum filled by state-sponsored propagandists and misinformers.
A BBC report found four major AI chatbots included significant inaccuracies in summaries of news stories and "struggled to differentiate between opinion and fact, editorialised, and often failed to include essential context". It follows Apple pulling its AI summaries.
The Hindu reports Uttar Pradesh police have taken legal action against 53 social media accounts for allegedly spreading misinformation about deaths and incidents at the Maha Kumbh pilgrimage.
CBC covers a survey suggesting 62% of Canadians have encountered health misinformation, a rise of 8%. Samantha Yammine highlighted an increase in misinformation about pasteurised milk and seed oils.
The Guardian describes how a conspiracy theory about Bovaer, a cattle feed additive proven to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas, has dragged in Reform MPs, the dairy industry and Bill Gates.
US surge update: RFK Jr
Back in November 2024 I warned the 'misinformers would be in charge' of the incoming Trump administration.
Three out of five of those on my US misinformer watchlist (Hegseth, Rubio & Collins) had already been appointed to key government positions. So it was no surprise to see RFK Jr also confirmed.
RFK Jr's appointment to head the US Department of Health and Human Services will have many impacts beyond misinformation.
But as a leading Generator of misinformation, including false claims around HIV, COVID-19, ethnic targeting of vaccines, vaccines and autism, and fluoride in water, the risk of him seeding health conspiracy theories into the global misinformation ecosystem is extremely high.
New York Times gave us a taste of what's to come. It highlighted how in his confirmation hearing RFK Jr said "I just want to follow the science" on vaccines, but when challenged with the consensus there is no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism replied that a new study "showed the opposite".
The article noted the study, whose methodology has been widely criticised: 'emanated from a network of vaccine skeptics who share some of Mr. Kennedy’s views — an ecosystem that includes the author of the study, the editor of the journal that published it and the advocacy group that financed it'.
It's been pointed out that several of the editorial board of the journal that published the study, Science, Public Health Policy and the Law, have had their medical certification revoked. The paper was funded by the National Vaccine Information Center, an anti-vax group.
John P Moore told NYT the incident: "epitomizes Kennedy’s consistent inability to distinguish junk science from reliable information".
As well as sowing doubts about vaccine safety, he has already said he will look into the safety of mifepristone, an FDA-approved abortion drug that has been used for over 20 years.
Following RFK Jr's confirmation, Katelyn Jetelina told TIME:
“Today really is a marker in the road, marking growing mistrust in institutions, marking power of changing information landscape, but most prominently, the marker that the lines between truth and falsehoods are blurred and how we navigate this new world is going to require a different approach.”
I think what we are already seeing: the repeating of widely debunked conspiracy theories, the use of junk science to challenge the scientific consensus and confuse the public, and "safety concerns" used as a trojan horse to smuggle ideological views into discussions of areas such as reproductive health, is the playbook we can expect RFK Jr and his misinformer allies to follow.
In my view it amounts to nothing less than a coordinated misinformation attack on the idea of public health itself.
It is an attack that experts, communications professionals, and leaders at health-focused institutions must resist if we are to rebuild trust in public health interventions that save countless lives.
Meet The Generator
In the first of five feature length articles I explore where (or rather who) fake news comes from.
Who are the people who generate it? Why do these Generators do it? And what can be done to stop them?
Meet the misinformers at the eye of the storm in 1/5: Generator. I'll be profiling more groups on the spectrum in future articles.
Recommended reading
While Foolproof is an accessible introduction to misinformation, for a deep dive into the topic check out The Psychology of Misinformation by Sander van der Linden and Jon Roozenbeek.
The book surveys the current state of misinformation research and interventions, is bursting with recent case studies, and explains complex ideas clearly without being dull or dry. I came away feeling my understanding of the field was deeper, broader and more nuanced.
Previously on the spectrum
In my previous newsletter I gazed ahead at the misinformation threats facing us in 2025 and looked back at what I've learned so far from LSHTM's own counter-misinformation work in Notes on a counter-misinformation campaign. While if you're unsure if the media are friend or foe in tackling fake news catch-up with the feature When to engage: the media & misinformation.