Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation are an increasing problem in civic affairs, according to one Calgary councillor—and he’d like a third party to review their impact on the city.

While he’s still investigating the elements of those topics, Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said he’ll bring a Notice of Motion forward sometime in March that will ask an outside source to gauge how the dissemination of incorrect information has impacted Calgary from both a financial and governance perspective.

Walcott said he needs a bit more time to talk with the City of Calgary Ethics and Integrity Commissioners before bringing the item forward.

He defined misinformation as little white lies that one may or may not know are false and not intended to hurt anyone. Disinformation is using information that one knows is false and using that to mislead people. Malinformation is the willful misinterpretation or exaggeration, or removal of context for the purpose of influencing people for a political outcome.

“These are really powerful forces nowadays, and it seems like the world is going the opposite direction, away from trying to actually have these conversations,” Walcott told LWC.

Walcott said the notion of ‘fake news’ isn’t new, it’s been around for nearly a decade. He said that at some point the pendulum has to swing the other way.

“The public are starting to try and fill gaps where other organizations aren’t able to, and you’re seeing a long list of people who are desperately trying to fact check their way through grifters and people who are intentionally trying to mislead, just so that there’s good information out there,” he said.

“Then there’s also politicians, admittedly, that will use their power to legitimize bad information for political ends, and that has to be kind of explored.”

Big issues under the influence

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said the Glenmore Landing land use issue was one area that was subject to an intense misinformation campaign.

She said it included user-generated photos that misrepresented the development’s impact, concern over water that were rebuked by city officials several times, and even the number of people that were going to be in the area.

It’s “absolutely” a problem for governance, she said.

“When I put out 10 pieces of information on my website, the community, those you know are against it can’t be bothered to review those and share those out,” Penner said.

“That’s actually intentionally withholding information, which is misinformation in and of itself.”

Walcott included the Green Line in the misinformation conversation. He believes that misinformation largely spurred the multiple delays on the $6.25 billion project, and even the current state of limbo the Green Line is in now.

It could be a misinformation campaign that costs the city billions, he said.

“There is a massive democratic cost to not knowing who to believe and not knowing where or how to get good information, especially when people are intentionally trying to obscure it,” he said.

“It is monetary.”

It’s important to have a third-party group conduct the review, as it has to be an outside review of misinformation’s impact. He’d be looking for something similar to an audit report on the impact of dealing with or managing each area of information.

That includes the impact on local media, he said.

“I think one thing that’s key that I’ve been having conversations with is the media crowd is getting smaller and smaller. Your time and your ability to do what was once the fact-checking exercise is being actively cut from underneath you,” he said.  

“So, if we don’t have that classic Fifth Estate, we don’t have the same strength of media to do this one for us. We’re seeing a problem. Clearly, we’re just it’s a gap that needs to be filled somehow.”