Fake News: Disinformation, Deception, and Magical Thinking Over Time Main Menu Connecticut's Own Bigfoot: The Winsted Wild Man "I Have Convinced Myself": The Cottingley Fairies and the Desire to Believe CF0 Going Viral: Disinformation and the Smallpox Vaccine Cigarettes: Advertising, Fake News and Fighting Science The tobacco industry in the United States saw huge increases in sales in the 20th century. Industry leaders were early adopters of both advertising, public relations and more subtle forms of product promotion. As research mounted linking cancer to smoking, the industry started a campaign to fight the scientific evidence. Explore Themes in this Exhibit Covid - 19: Real Debates and Fake News About the Authors We did this thing

What can this teach us about today? Can we inoculate against disinformation?

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Together, the tactics used by those invested in debates over vaccination are not dissimilar to techniques used to spread disinformation today.

The World Health Organization declared the global eradication of smallpox in 1980. This would not have been possible without compulsory vaccination.

Can this history tell us anything about the role of the government in reigning in disinformation? In a landmark 1905 ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to enforce compulsory vaccination, arguing it was akin to requiring compulsory service in the case of a foreign invasion. However, the ruling required states to regulate vaccines so that these defenses didn’t pose a threat themselves.

How does this relate to current conversations about the role of the government in regulating social media platforms that spread disinformation? Does it have an obligation to regulate expression on their platforms even if it infringes on individual rights? It is possible to inoculate people against disinformation?

A recent game called Bad News explores just that idea. It exposes players to small doses of disinformation in order to “inoculate” them against it. By inviting players to spread disinformation, it argues, it can raise awareness of common tactics used to help “fake news” go viral.
 

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  1. Going Viral: Disinformation and the Smallpox Vaccine Joelle Thomas