Combating information warfare: state and trends in user-centred countermeasures against fake news and misinformation

The rise of fake news and misinformation in the digital age poses serious risks for individuals and society, particularly during crises like the Israel-Hamas war, the Russian-Ukraine war, or the COVID-19 pandemic. Misinformation serves as a tool to manipulate public opinion and create discord. Vulnerability to manipulation increases in online spaces during crises, where authoritative information is scarce. Emergency management, public health, political and public administration, as well as media professionals and citizens express concern and seek solutions to enhance information quality during such critical times. This article highlights user-centred approaches to countering fake news and misinformation, tracing their historical evolution from ancient Greece to the present, focussing on their relevance during the COVID-19 crisis and in contemporary information warfare. It describes the vulnerability of audiences to misinformation and outlines prevailing trends in user-centred countermeasures. This article also introduces recent research on the effectiveness of media literacy interventions on truth discernment, a cross-cultural comparison of the perception of negative consequences and the injunctive norm, a comparison of video and text to promote lateral reading in adolescents, content-specific indicators on Twitter from a user perspective, a learning system for detecting misinformation as well as ethical and security considerations in automated detection.