Manipulated content is one of the seven information disorders identified by Claire Wardle in The Verification Handbook (2020), the other being Satire or Parody; Misleading Content; Imposter Content; Fabricated Content; False Connection and False Context.
Marcello Ienca in “On Artificial Intelligence and Manipulation”, defines manipulation as “the act of influencing or controlling someone or something in a skillful or devious way, often with an intent to deceive or gain an advantage”. Hespeaks of “a violation of cognitive liberty” and brings in the interesting concept of “neurorights”. What sets content manipulation apart from other content disorders is the hidden intention of the author to deceive, to prejudice or gain something: fame, power, money, etc. Among the features that Ienca emphasizes are intentionality, asymmetry of outcome, non-transparency, and violation of autonomy.
Science and research are not exempt from information manipulation. During early Covid-19, even prestigious scientific journals (Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine) which were known to have some long-term established verification systems, too hastily published some papers on the use of hydroxychloroquine, where data had been poorly validated. They even retracted these papers. In 2023, some scholars had to resign due to plagiarism, a form of information manipulation by not properly acknowledging the sources. According to a briefing from the famous publication Nature, from 2017 studies suggested that up to one in five papers in sciences already included manipulated images mid-2010s. So, even the scientific and academic arenas are not immune to data and information manipulation.
Although content manipulation has always existed, it has become extremely skilled in this new decade, thanks to the development of sophisticated artificial intelligence tools and Big Data technologies. Today, debunking manipulated content is much more challenging than it used to be.
Check our Tips (Tools) about Tools and techniques for manipulated VISUAL content and our Tips (Tools) on Fact-Checking resources.
and our handbook Master ADVANCED Digital Tools for Research, available on AMAZON marketplaces
