M isleading information is far from new and manifests itself in a myriad of ways. Reframing stories in headlines, using fragments of quotes to support a wider point, citing statistics in a way that aligns with a position or deciding not to cover something because it undermines an argument are all recognised — if underhand — techniques. When making a point, everyone is prone to drawing out content that supports their overall argument. A few years ago, an engineer at a major technology company asked me to define misleading. I was momentarily flummoxed because every time I tried to define the term I kept tripping over myself, saying “well, you just know, don’t you. It’s ‘misleading’”. Misleading is hard to define exactly because it’s about context and nuance and how much of a quote is omitted. To what extent have statistics been massaged? Has the way a photo was cropped significantly changed the meaning of the image? This complexity is why we’re such a long way from having artificial intelligence flag this type of content. It was why the engineer wanted a clear definition. Computers understand true and false, but misleading is full of grey. The computer has to understand the original piece of content (the quote, the statistic, the image), recognise the fragment, and then decipher whether the fragment significantly changes the meaning of the original. There is clearly a significant difference between sensational hyperpartisan content and slightly misleading captions that reframe an issue and impact the way someone might interpret an image. But trust in the media has plummeted. Misleading content that might previously have been viewed as harmless should be viewed differently. A September 2018 study11 by the Knight Foundation and Gallup found that most Americans are losing faith in the media, and their reasons largely centre on matters of accuracy or bias. 69%  of adults say they have lost trust in the media over the past decade... ... a figure that, among Republicans, rises to 42%  94%  of Democrats state they have lost trust in the news media. Source: Knight Foundation (September 2018) Indicators of News Media Trust. 24 I N F O R M AT I O N D I S O R D E R MISLEADING CONTENT 25