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Disinformation

Disinformation is deliberately misleading or inaccurate information designed to deceive the public and undermine people’s ability to make informed decisions. Although forged documents, government propaganda, deceptive advertising and other forms of disinformation are not new, current information technologies make the creation and spread of disinformation possible on an unprecedented scale and with unprecedented impact.

Blog May 11, 2018

Disinformation by Quantification

We are seeing a rapid expansion of the use of metrics (quantitative methods) for assessing performance and directing behaviour of states and public institutions. This is not a new idea but one that has many adverse effects. Use of metrics can (1) encroach on matters (such as human values[1]) not properly assessable by quantitative means, and can (2) be misused even in traditionally quantitative matters (such as accounting fraud).
Blog January 29, 2018

Facilitated Disinformation

Disinformation can be facilitated by government regulatory structures—leading to deception and betrayals of trust, regardless of the structures’ original purpose. Significant regulatory failures in health and environmental areas are discussed here. A subsequent post will discuss broader influences contributing to the failures and how to overcome such problems.
Blog September 8, 2017

Mein Trumpf: From the New Deal to The Art of the Deal, and On to the Abyss?

In the final days of 2016, the small island nation of Cuba mourned the passing of a political giant. Meanwhile, next door, superpower America nervously welcomed as the latest occupant of its highest office a gigantic bigot. To be sure, Fidel Castro’s passing was not mourned but celebrated in Little Havana in Miami, while Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was lamented by most of the Americans who voted in their federal election.
Blog June 19, 2017

Intellectuals, Disinformation and Repression

Events of early 2017 in Canada and the US raised once again the question: why are Islamic people so often subjected to discrimination, repression and violence in our societies and abroad? Among the reasons is denigration of Islamic religion and culture by intellectuals whose writing has long been given prominence by Western mainstream media. Their disinformation helped to generate a political environment in which some people in the West uncritically accept severe actions against Muslims by governments, groups or individuals, and curtailments of rights for all.