The Science of deception: nine years ago we were warned about infodemia

Desciption

In its Global Risks 2013 report, the World Forum exposed the main sources of imbalance and threats to contemporary society, divided into five categories that bring together 50 types of negative scenarios: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.
The report, based on the consultation of more than 100 experts in various disciplines worldwide, details a 10-year forecast in the aforementioned categories.
Among the highlights in the fifth classification, corresponding to the technological environment, the analysis exposes a risk of “”massive digital misinformation (or disinformation),”” which it defines as:
“Deliberately provocative, misleading or incomplete information disseminates rapidly and extensively with dangerous consequences”.
The risk scenario, as mentioned, is forecast as likely to occur in 10 years from 2013, but, as we can testify today, we are already living it earlier than expected.
The wave of misinformation that global society faced during the last few years with the emergence of COVID-19 is an indication that the forecast is a reality that global society did little to avoid and that, beyond affecting science communication, has proven to put people’s lives at risk.