Detecting Error Proneness and Error Resistance of Information

Abstract

Detection of error proneness is critical to protect against the susceptibility of cyberspace to unintended misinformation transmission that can foment, strife, and undermine the social and political stability of a community. The information from an untrustworthy source does not carry the same impact as the information distorted during transmission from a trustworthy source. The paper attempts to contain these misinformation transmissions at their origin by detecting error proneness and increasing resistance towards any unintended message distortion. The paper identifies factors of error proneness and factors of error resistance through a review of relevant prior literature. Ambiguity, vagueness, imprecision, and lack of presuppositions are identified as factors of error proneness. We examine each factor in detail and attempt to quantify these factors into indicators that could serve as suggestive warnings. The paper analyzes the ambiguity of tweets after a terrorist attack in London and attempts to develop an algorithm for devising an ambiguity index to avoid distortion during the transfer. Similar algorithms and indices are planned to be developed for other factors.

Keywords: Error Prone, Ambiguity, Misinformation, Social Media

JEL Classification: M00, M15