It’s much too easy (in the name of “free speech”) to fall into the hypocrisy of permitting what the whole world recognizes as hate speech while only censoring certain speech we particularly hate.  The movie Citizen Kane contains excellent dialogue and two of my favorite lines are spoken by a close friend of Mr Kane. Read More

Aphorisms abound, for the internet age, to help guide us through the digital jungle that’s the World Wide Web. “Correlation is not causation” is one, another is “you are entitled to your opinions but not your own facts.” An ‘opinion’ can belong to anyone without any consideration to ‘belief’, ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ and it is Read More

Presented here are educational videos recommended by Avram Turing. These videos are lectures/talks by prominent scholars and researchers. This list will be regularly updated.  Each video looks at misinformation from a different point of view but complimentary with other perspectives. danah boyd is the founder/president of Data & Society Research Institute. She is also partner Read More

Our forthcoming book, Misinformation Matters: Online Content and Quality Analysis, will be published 19 April 2023 (Taylor & Francis) From the back cover: What is ‘misinformation’? Why does it matter? How does it spread on the internet, especially on social media platforms? What can we do to counteract the worst of its effects? Can we Read More

Presented here is a misinformation prevention reading list. The range of works presented here in this list is meant to be indicative and definitely not exhaustive: too many brilliant works out there. The emphasis is on insights from foundational and background issues about misinformation online. The importance of critical thinking and analytical thinking skills is Read More

Here’s a rough diagram showing how Avram Turing categorizes different types of online content based on our theory of information quality. Through our research, in 2021 we coined two new concepts “non-information” and “off-information” then introduced them to the international research community and the information quality body of knowledge [1] Note [1] U.Omoregie (2021),  Information Read More

A quick search on Wikipedia for the entry on ‘Misinformation’ will produce a write up that begins with a definition: “Misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information that is communicated regardless of an intention to deceive. Examples of misinformation are false rumors, insults, and pranks. Disinformation is a subset of misinformation that is deliberately deceptive” Read More

Issues of information disorder online could be reduced to the matter of information quality: not just about distinguishing truth from falsehood but highlighting legitimate and credible information.  In the online information ecosystem, ‘trustworthiness’  is key, an emphasis that trending content online should have a signal of the level of ‘trust’ we can place on such Read More

We have received insightful comments on our Academia Letters paper ‘Information Disorder Online is an Issue of Information Quality’ published in August 2021. It is a short paper, a ‘letter’, that presents a tentative theory of online information quality. The paper introduces two new terms ‘off-information’ and ‘non-information’ to the scholarly literature/information quality body of Read More

Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) transformed the field of logic from what it had remained since the days of Aristotle. Regarded as the founder of modern logic and much of modern philosophy [1], Frege laid the foundations of predicate logic, first-order predicate calculus and quantificational logic – formal systems central to computer science and mathematics (also modern Read More

A Wittgensteinian approach to misinformation analysis [1] [2] presents a model inspired by the framework of the early philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. This approach is based on ‘analysis’ or analytical thinking, which could be differentiated from ‘criticism’ or critical thinking. Analysis involves decomposition of information to simpler elements for clarity and better understanding, the opposite Read More

Misinformation propagation in its current form is a global problem that requires urgent solutions. Historically, instances of misinformation publicly propagated can be found as far back as the sixth century AD. Misinformation was propagated publicly when Procopius, the historian, wrote deliberate falsehoods to tarnish the image of Emperor Justinian [1]. In the history of misinformation Read More

  At Avram Turing we use a unique approach to online misinformation analysis. Our aim is the help clarify the meaning of online content we analyze. We do not place a judgment on the content and we do not recommend content: we neither condemn nor endorse. Our approach could be described as ‘centrist’ or non-partisan. Read More

  Free speech is the grey area found somewhere between the pillars of freedom and responsibility. It is recognized as one of the most important tenets of any democratic civil society. Nothing else is more important in a democracy after the establishment of the rule of law. There are, of course, obvious limits to free Read More

  Media/online literacy is critical if the world expects progress in the battle against misinformation online. A 2018 paper on media literacy by Erica Hodgin and Joe Kane in the journal Social Education [1], revealed that many secondary school students cannot tell the difference between a real news story and an advertisement/sponsored content. Hodgin and Read More

All stakeholders have roles to play: civil society, tech companies, governments, educational institutions, as well as commercial enterprises, to reduce the continuous harm done by the flood of misinformation online. This responsibility cannot be left alone to governments or tech companies. The cooperation of all stakeholders is required to successfully combat misinformation online. People everywhere Read More

The information age began in the middle of the 20th century: a shift from an emphasis on mechanical/industrial production to information technology. Claude Shannon’s information theory quantified information and made it measurable. But, because Shannon’s theory was a quantitative theory of communication, the meaning of information transmitted was a secondary issue. In his landmark 1948 Read More

We need to be clear about what really is ‘information’. Is ‘misinformation’ information or something else? Information scientists have adopted a general definition of information (GDI). According to the GDI, information is data that is well-formed and meaningful [1]. Misinformation and disinformation are not genuine information because they are false, although they may have semantic Read More

Most people agree that misinformation online is a menace to society. But what has been the response? Four different responses to the problem of information disorder and echo chambers have been applied online. The initial response was to do nothing and leave content consumers to discern for themselves. It was argued that the Web is Read More

An increasing problem is that more people are becoming convinced of the argument – an argument particularly espoused by proponents of controversial theories – that a person’s only choices are believing in one entire group of facts over another group, rather than being prepared to check what are currently acknowledged as being facts, by the Read More

Avram Turing’s Global-OAQ is a system (and method) for online content analysis, a descriptive tool. Web-based information (articles, commentary etc.) is analysed then scored based on criteria designed to evaluate the quality of analytical content. Content is then categorised as ‘analytical’ or ‘non-analytical’. Further labelling of the intrinsic nature of the content (e.g. ‘satire’ ‘political’ Read More

Analytical thinking skills are indispensable for misinformation prevention. Analysing content one encounters from the internet requires logical and reasoning skills to filter out sense from nonsense. Surprisingly, analytical/critical thinking skills are not as common as we would expect. In a 2015 paper, Simon Cullen of Princeton University and his co-authors concluded that “the ability to Read More

$78 Billion Every Year! Online social media has brought together billions of people from around the world. The impact of diverse platforms such as Facebook, WeChat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Signal, WhatsApp, Gab, Instagram, Telegraph etc. has been transformational.  The number of active users of the six most popular online social networks combined is estimated at about Read More

Three guiding philosophies drive the work that Avram Turing analysts do: Wittgensteinian Ubuntu ‘Harm Principle’ These three approaches are critical: a focus on facts, upholding freedom of speech and the importance of working together with all stakeholders (civil society, social media companies, educational institutions and governments), for misinformation prevention and analysis. Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Read More

Avram Turing is an organization of analysts who read, summarize, label and rate the quality of online written content. We also help online content consumers engage analytically on the World Wide Web. We can work with educators, schools and other institutions of learning. We can also provide advisory work for civil society, public communication platforms Read More