Tag - misinformation

 
 

MISINFORMATION

Fumes rise from the coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah, in 2024. A 141-page Energy Department report challenged by more than 85 scientists in a joint analysis appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding — the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 3, 2025
Scientists assail ‘cherry-picking’ of Trump administration climate report
The report appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 finding that's the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
According to a survey by the Japanese Red Cross Society, over 25% of respondents in Japan saw or heard false news or information during natural disasters.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2025
Over 25% in Japan encountered false information during disasters
Nearly half of all respondents, 47.4%, were aware of Disaster Prevention Day. But 74.3% said they had never participated in local disaster response drills.
The Foreign Ministrys budget request for fiscal 2026 will call for building information infrastructure and developing digital human resources.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
Foreign Ministry to seek ¥874.3 billion budget for fiscal 2026
The budget request will call for building information infrastructure and developing digital human resources.
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2025
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
Social media and news have focused more on the misinformation that Japan is accepting a large number of immigrants from Africa.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives at a photo session for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reacts, in Yokohama, last week.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 26, 2025
Misinformation over JICA’s Africa ‘hometown’ initiative sparks controversy
Media reports claiming the initiative would include a special visa category for skilled Africans who want to come to Japan exacerbated the confusion.
A measles alert sign is posted outside the entrance to the Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York in March.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2025
‘Alternative facts’ aren't a reason to skip vaccines
Donald Trump’s health officials have been endorsing alternative facts in science to impose policies that contradict modern medical knowledge.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in September last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 15, 2025
Meta AI rules let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids and offer false info
Meta's standards don’t necessarily reflect "ideal or even preferable” generative AI outputs, an internal document states. But they have permitted provocative behavior by the bots.
Palestinians wait to collect food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Aug. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
Palestinian mother 'destroyed' after image used to deny Gaza starvation
For Faiza Najjar, the fact that her family's reunion got caught up in a misinformation campaign was devastating.
A person visits the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 4, 2025
AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink
A recent study has revealed that AI-generated summaries now appearing in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles.
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday’s election
A blog post from a member of the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems went viral for stating Russian bots were interfering in the upcoming Upper House election.
AI-created images of Holocaust-related subjects displayed on a laptop and a smartphone screens
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
Holocaust AI fakes spark alarm
Critics say that AI-generated images, text and videos are offensive and contribute to Holocaust distortion by conjuring up a "fantasy-land Auschwitz."
Grok, a chatbot made by xAI, on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on billionaire owner Elon Musk's social media platform, X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025
Europe’s clash with Musk’s xAI escalates after Grok’s rants
The chatbot on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on social media platform X.
A law enforcement member works in recovery operations following flooding on the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2025
Misinformation from left and right sows confusion amid Texas floods
Liberals baselessly blamed staffing cuts at U.S. weather agencies for flawed warning systems while conservatives ramped up conspiracy theories.
Evgeniya Mayboroda sits in the defendant's dock during the announcement of the verdict in her case at the municipal court of Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, Russia, on Jan. 29, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2025
The strange case of Evgeniya Mayboroda, Russia's rebel retiree
The 72-year-old's transformation from fan to critic says much about the state of today's Russia under Vladimir Putin.
CIA director John Ratcliffe departs after a briefing with members of Congress in Washington on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2025
Trump’s CIA backs 2016 assessment that Putin wanted him to win
The latest findings put CIA director John Ratcliffe in a bind with Trump, who has called Russian election interference "a total hoax” and blasted the original conclusions.
Taiwan, under constant threat from AI-powered disinformation by authoritarian regimes, has emerged as a global leader in digital democratic defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2025
Taiwan provides a model for digital defense of democracy
As the U.S. and others struggle to confront AI-driven disinformation, Taiwan’s resilience has become its latest key export.
Recent incidents by the world's most advanced artificial intelligence models of lying, scheming and even threatening their creators highlight a sobering reality: more than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don't fully understand how their own creations work.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2025
AI is learning to lie, scheme and threaten its creators
More than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don't fully understand how their own creations work.
A voter takes a photograph of a candidate running for a Tokyo assembly seat, in Tokyo on June 21.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 27, 2025
Lawmaker hints at new social media regulations as misinformation taints elections
Under a new law, social media sites can remove posts defaming political candidates if creators don't respond within two days, but lawmakers say that's too long.
Two mobile phones show different viral AI-generated videos of people voicing their opinions on the impeachment of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 26, 2025
AI fakes duel over Sara Duterte impeachment in Philippines
Two interviews with Filipinos arguing for and against Vice President Duterte's impeachment have gone viral. Neither are real.
A draft interim report calls on social media service providers to introduce voluntary regulations designed to suspend monetization in the event of a disaster, to curb the spread of disinformation.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2025
Japan aims to regulate social media monetization in disasters
The report calls on social media service providers to suspend monetization in the event of a disaster, to curb the spread of disinformation.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past