Scottish Health Information Integrity Strategy

What is False Information?

How can we define what is false information? Who gets to decide what is false and what is not? One common way to consider this is by intent; when this information was created or shared, was it intended to cause harm or to deceive? This is the core meaning of misinformation and disinformation; commonly used terms which feature increasingly in the media and online. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines these as follows:^[7]

• misinformation – the ‘spread of false information without the intent to mislead’
• disinformation – information ‘designed or spread with full knowledge of it being false…as part of an intention to deceive and cause harm’

A further term – ‘infodemic’ – has been coined to describe situations during disease outbreaks in which there is an overabundance of information that is both factual and inaccurate, leading to confusion and risk-taking behaviours which can be harmful to health.^[8]

Delving deeper, it soon becomes apparent that these definitions are not enough. While some information can be easily viewed as false, there are many situations where the distinction between true and false is not so clear-cut.

With constant scientific developments, information that was once viewed as false may in the passage of time turn out to be true. This is a core challenge of creating a common definition that everyone can use. A report published in late 2024 by the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine^[9] has developed the following definition for misinformation about science:

‘Misinformation about science is information that asserts or implies claims that are inconsistent with the weight of accepted scientific evidence at the time (reflecting both quality and quantity of evidence). Which claims are determined to be misinformation about science can evolve over time as new evidence accumulates and scientific knowledge regarding those claims advances.’

False information is widespread, easily created and can be harmful to our health. Arriving at a suitable definition is not simply an academic exercise. Institutions which fulfil a role as a trusted source of accurate information must also be able to justify why information is untrue. Given that much of the false health information circulating involves a distortion of the scientific basis for healthcare (such as vaccination), the above definition provides a useful foundation for action in the health setting.