Opinion: Disaster misinformation raises stakes for Japan's social media users

In the immediate aftermath of the Kumamoto earthquake on July 28, social media was flooded with unverified information, including old disaster footage repurposed to depict current damage, videos exaggerating the situation and baseless posts predicting further quakes.

[...]

Of particular concern is the increasing sophistication of fake images and videos created with generative artificial intelligence. With generative AI, plausible scenes -- collapsed buildings, fires, tsunamis and people calling for help -- can be produced in a short time.

Not only still images but also video and audio now feel closer to the real thing, including news-style videos, making it harder to judge authenticity by appearance alone. As fakes proliferate, even genuine footage of disaster damage is increasingly being questioned as potentially AI-generated.

[...]

Misinformation is said to spread more easily when a topic is of great concern, and the situation remains unclear.

Disasters are of great concern because they threaten lives, while the full extent of the damage is often unknown immediately after they occur. Many people are also driven by good intentions, such as wanting to quickly inform others or help those in need.

[...]

Governments, news outlets and platform operators should move quickly to debunk emerging misinformation. They should also advance "prebunking," or informing people in advance about the kinds of false information that may appear during disasters, providing a kind of inoculation against misinformation.

[...]