Misinformation are similar to rumors. Rumors are said to be dangerous and false information given out from people to others. Misinformation is dangerous because it can cause someone to die and lose the image of another. In this Ted talk, Mr. Aral gave an example that Syrian hackers gave a tweet that Obama was injured by 2 explosions. there were 4,000 re-tweets in less than 5 minutes. This is really crazy and is dangerous and maybe ruined Obama’s image in being a president. The rumor was spread really fast because the title caught attention to many people by its title.
Many rumors that are spreading through social media can be done by bots, professionally programmed. If these bots continue to spread misinformation, the people that are the topics, may be harmed and be a victim of cyberbullying. For example, if the title, “Jeff Bezos is identified as a rapist”, some people may believe this and hack into the amazon system. Mr. Bezos’s life could be in danger.
The more misinformation spread, the more famous people will be emotionally injured. Having these bots/people spreading these cause harm to humanity’s environment, some people may even take it far enough to commit suicide. Everyone should be careful and always do their research before confirming the news.