An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Mis/Disinformation Control

Existing studies from a wide breadth of fields surrounding fake news and their controls are mostly siloed from proposals from other domains. This design yields a limited perspective on mis/disinformation controls resulting in an incomplete and ineffective approach. In this work, we employ a two-part qualitative method to solicit opinions regarding their perspective in building solutions to mis/disinformation. We assembled a seven-member assembly of experts from various fields: computer and information sciences, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, laws and policies, psychology, telecommunication, and education. They participated in a US Supreme Court style study design, namely focus group discussions and Delphi opinion collection, to recommend an interdisciplinary solution to the phenomenon of fake news. Findings indicate that user education and social media awareness should sit at the center of every solution to fortify the cognitive ability of humans against cyber deception. Future forms of mistruths will evolve, made possible by AI, and their respective solutions should too. The classic fortification dimension, however, even in the future solutions should be the human ability to discern legitimate news from falsehoods.