At a recent event
hosted by the Shoman Library on disinformation, I stated that Jordan was third
in the world in terms of the number of cyber-attacks and influence operations.
I also made it clear that this statistics was from 2016–2017, a period at the
apex of the anti-Daesh war and Syrian civil war. Since then, the anti-Daesh war
has continued but at a lower intensity while Bashar Al-Assad has taken control
of key areas in Syria.
اضافة اعلان
Unfortunately,
many only remembered the data point that Jordan is the third most targeted
country online, when, in fact, it referred to both cyber-attacks and influence
campaigns; moreover, somehow, the fact that the statistics was from 2016–2017
was also conveniently left out. Newspapers ran stories using the incomplete
information to bolster their arguments that the Jordanian government should do
more in cyber and disinformation defense. While the conclusion is sound, I
would like to clarify the statistics and use it as the perfect example of
misinformation — that is, incorrect information that is accidentally spread
with no malign intent.
Let me reiterate:
Jordan was the third most targeted country if the number of cyber-attacks and
coordinated influence operations in 2016-2017 were added up. Jordan was
extremely critical during that time when the global war against Daesh and the
Syrian civil war were raging on with multiple actors. While the two are still
security priorities today, they have simmered down, making Jordan no longer the
third most targeted country in cyber and influence operations.
We are just coming out of a major pandemic where accurate health information saved lives and misinformation endangered them. Misinformation drives good people to make poor decisions, bad investments, and take dangerous risks.
By now, however,
the misinformation has already spread. There are heated public discussions on
Facebook and I have received multiple direct inquiries from private and public
sectors. They are not inquiring about points in my talk, but about points from
the misinformation.
I get asked a lot
about how we can combat mis/disinformation online. (Just to be clear,
misinformation is spreading false information without malign intent,
disinformation is a deliberate action with malign intent.) My answer: media
literacy education, training critical thinking skills, and, to some extent,
fact checking.
So, I was
pleasantly surprised when the misinformation was questioned by Jordanian
experts such as Majdi Qabalean. We need more fact checkers with critical thinking
skills to question when something sounds fishy. In this case, his Facebook post
was the final push I needed to write an article debunking the misinformation.
But this should also be used to reflect on how misinformation can spread easily
and quickly.
We are just coming
out of a major pandemic where accurate health information saved lives and
misinformation endangered them. Misinformation drives good people to make poor
decisions, bad investments, and take dangerous risks. Following experts who
question results, supporting professional journalists who base their work on
fact, and, most importantly, investing in our own critical thinking betters our
choices, lives, and societies.
Evanna Hu is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic
Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and the CEO and partner
of Omelas, an artificial intelligence and machine learning company working on
mapping the online information environment.
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