As conflict rates soar, misinformation is getting worse
When it comes to conflict, everyone has an opinion — often about why it occurs and who is responsible — and it’s very rare that these views based are on evidence. Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP via Getty Images
POLITICO
I’ve been collecting conflict data for over 20 years, and cannot recall a time when I was more worried about what the public knows regarding political violence — and how they know it.
When it comes to conflict, everyone has an opinion — often about why it occurs and who is responsible — and it’s very rare that these views based are on evidence. However, it isn’t such casual opinions I’m worried about. I’d surely be guilty of the same if asked about interest rates or health fads, or topics outside my area of expertise.
Yet, over the past years, we’ve seen the emergence of a confluence of factors (including sourcing from automated, AI-generated social media trawls and strongly politicized information collection), which will inevitably create a distortion in conflict data. And it will have a detrimental effect on what people will come to know about conflict, how we respond to or engage with threats and risks, whose security we value and whose human rights we uphold.
As conflict rates continue to rise, we need accurate, reliable and good-faith evidence to stem the tide.
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