Social Media: An Exploratory Study of Information, Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation

Abstract The widespread use of social media all around the globe has affected the way of life in all aspects, not only for individuals but for businesses as well. Businesses share their upcoming events, reveal their products, and advertise to their potential customers, where individuals use social media to stay connected with their social circles, get updates and news from social media pages of news agencies, and update their information regarding the latest activities, businesses, economy, events, politics, trends, and about their area of interest. According to Statista, there were 4.59 billion users of social media worldwide in 2022 and expected to grow up to 5.85 billion in the year 2027. With its massive user base, social media does not only generate useful information for businesses and individuals, but at the same time, it also creates an abundance of misinformation and disinformation as well as malinformation to acquire social-political or business agendas. Individuals tend to share social media posts without checking the authenticity of the information they are sharing, which results in posts having misinformation, disinformation, or malinformation becoming viral around the world in a matter of minutes. Identifying misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation has become a prominent problem associated with social media.