With our social media feeds saturated by fake news and AI becoming more sophisticated by the day, it’s getting harder to to spot disinformation. We've put together five tips to help you see the facts through the fog.
Disinformation is polluting our online environment and becoming a very real threat to our safety. The 2025 World Economic Forum’s Global Risk’s Report ranked disinformation as the #1 short-term threat to global security for the second year running.
Disinformation vs misinformation vs malinformation – what's the difference?
You may have heard of both misinformation and disinformation and lumped them together - but misinformation and disinformation are not quite the same thing. So what’s the difference?
- Misinformation is false information that is inadvertently spread without intent to harm. This could be an accident, a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge.
- Disinformation is deliberately spread with the intent to confuse or mislead. Disinformation is far more sinister, with people able to manipulate false information for their own gain.
- Malinformation is true information that is taken out of context, exaggerated and shared with the intent to cause harm. This could include selectively sharing quotes out of context or images without someone’s consent.
Why is disinformation so dangerous?
In a critical time for climate, a federal election looming here in Australia and generative AI giving anyone with a laptop the ability to create and disseminate fake content, disinformation has the very real power to impact our elections, incite hostility and cause harm.
Evidence shows that one of the best ways to slow the spread of disinformation is to learn how to spot it. So how do we spot disinformation and separate the fake from the facts?
Five warning signs of fake news and disinformation, and how to counter them
1. Impersonation
Someone intent on spreading disinformation, sometimes called ‘bad actors’, impersonate a trusted source or create a convincing fake source to deliberately misinform. With thousands of messages and ads bombarding us daily, it can be tricky to spot impersonation.
How to counter it: Double-check if the info you’re getting is from an official account. Don’t trust an unfamiliar source even if it seems trustworthy, double-check the info with a source you know and trust.
2. Cherry-picking information
Some people intent on spreading disinformation cherry-pick data that appears to confirm one position while ignoring other data that contradicts it. This can be heavily misleading, distorting reality through a narrow lens to support a specific view.
How to counter it: Be cautious with sources that skip over details or dissenting views. Ask yourself: “What’s being left out?” Consider the full picture and explore diverse sources for a clearer perspective.
3. Overly emotional content
Content that draws out a strong emotional reaction like fear or anger can hinder our ability to assess the quality of information. People may use this to trick us into having an overly strong reaction and mistakenly spreading disinformation further.
How to counter it: When content provokes a strong emotional reaction in you, pause and take a breather before re-evaluating the news. Consider the language used by the source and whether it seems deliberately designed to make you feel a certain way.
4. Discrediting opponents
People spreading disinformation will often discredit their opponents in order to deflect our attention and scrutiny away from flaws in their arguments, or the fake news they are spreading.
How to counter it: Firstly, when you see content that attacks a group or individual, ask yourself what is motivating the author. Are they more interested in reporting information or smearing a target? Secondly, double-check if the claims are accurate.
5. Conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories are a powerful disinformation tool. They cast doubt over facts and encourage conspiratorial thinking that pushes public discussions away from those facts.
How to counter it: Conspiracy theories thrive on speculation. Ask yourself if the content you’re viewing is evidence-backed or prompting you to speculate? If it’s speculation, ignore it.
Examples of disinformation
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Save the Right Whales Coalition. On face value, the Save the Right Whales Coalition sounds like an evidence-based group dedicated to whale conservation. You’d have no way of knowing, but the group was set up in 2021 as a front to peddle disinformation about wind energy in the U.S. The consensus among trusted experts and sources of whale conservation is that there is no scientific evidence linking wind farms to whale deaths. So, while it’s critical to get information from trusted sources, we also need to be on the lookout for bad actors impersonating as trusted sources!
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MP Angus Taylor congratulating himself in his own comment section. Angus Taylor commented ‘Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus’ on his own post about carparks for rail commuters. While at face value this is funny, it’s also a form of disinformation that can be dangerous. It’s likely that one of Angus Taylor’s staffers forgot to log out of his account before posting, however it’s an example of impersonating community voices in the comment section, skewing community sentiment.
- South Australia’s wind and solar use. Looking at the below graph, you would assume that sun and wind power an insignificant amount of South Australia’s energy. However, this is just a snapshot of time. We know that in 2023, 74% of South Australia’s energy came from renewables. This is a disinformation technique called cherry-picking. Cherry-picking is used to mislead.
What are the disinformation battlegrounds this election?
- Anti-renewables disinformation campaigns. Blatant lies about renewables being spread in communities, online and with well-funded ad campaigns with links to coal, oil and gas corporations; e.g. offshore wind is killing whales (this is untrue). Read all the key facts you need to know about wind farms.
- Nuclear energy being dragged back into the spotlight after years of campaigning. Read six reasons why nuclear is bad for Australia.
- Climate change being called into question, despite overwhelming evidence. We know climate change is real, here and urgent.
I can spot fake news, now what?
- Test your knowledge by taking our disinformation quizzes about social media, offshore wind, and nuclear.
- Share this page with friends and family. Help the people you love understand the information they’re engaging with.
- Be conscious of the media you are consuming and apply the knowledge you’ve learned. You can download our handy factsheet to keep in your back pocket.
