What is the Global Information Crisis?
The global information crisis refers to the widespread challenges we all face in recognizing and accessing accurate, trustworthy, and meaningful information.
The United Nations has described it as:
Misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and other risks to the information ecosystem are fueling conflict, threatening democracy and human rights, and undermining public health and climate action. 1
The crisis encompasses:
- misinformation (unintentionally false or manipulative content)
- disinformation (deliberately false or manipulative content)
- information overload (excessive and overwhelming amounts of information)
- algorithmic harms (biases, manipulation & negative side-effects from automated systems), and
- related issues such as echo chambers, poor media literacy and poor awareness of cybersecurity protections
Collectively, these things lead to economic damages and loss of life, while also undermining trust, decision-making, and societal cohesion. Specific global risks of weak information processes include extreme weather events; cost of living crises; growing media consolidation; war, terrorism & other armed conflicts between states; societal polarization; natural resource shortages; supply chain disruptions; growing inequality; the erosion of human rights; emerging threats from AI and other frontier technology; and so on.
Footnotes
- United Nations. (2024, June 24). UN launches recommendations for urgent action to curb harm from spread of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech [Press release]. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/global-principles-information-integrity-press-release.pdf