TRUTH DECAYThe World's Top Global Risk Is Misinformation and Disinformation: World Economic Forum
Mis- and disinformation have once again been named the top global risk of the immediate term in the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025. Disinformation is deeply insidious, destructive and rapidly evolving. It often comes hand-in-hand with its less malicious but equally destructive cousin, misinformation.
Mis- and disinformation have once again been named the top global risk of the immediate term in the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025.
This comes just days after Meta announced it’s ending its third-party fact checking functions to address disinformation on its social media platforms.
One year ago, in the 2024 Global Risks Report, WEF shone a spotlight on the risk posed by pervasive mis- and disinformation around the world, listing it as the top global risk for the immediate term or next two years.
The impacts and realities of these risks have been on display in local communities throughout the past year. As we kick off 2025, it’s worth reflecting on the extraordinary breadth of disinformation we’ve witnessed, month by month. Below are just a few of the numerous examples of disinformation in cities.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, disinformation is “knowingly false information designed to deliberately mislead and influence public opinion or obscure the truth for malicious or deceptive purposes”.
It often comes hand-in-hand with its less malicious but equally destructive cousin, misinformation, which is spreading false information due to “ignorance, or by error or mistake, without the intent to deceive”.
Disinformation is deeply insidious, destructive and rapidly evolving. And cities are increasingly in the firing line.
And so, as much as many of us want to look ahead, it’s worth looking back at a tiny snapshot of disinformation reported in cities throughout 2024 – so we can attempt to avoid the same mistakes in 2025.
Twelve Months of Disinformation
Disinformation can come in a variety of guises – and we saw many of them throughout 2024.
In January, as we began the ‘global election year’, the World Economic Forum issued a dire prediction, naming mis- and disinformation the world’s top global risk of the immediate term.
In February, a measles outbreak in Broward County, Florida, was linked to lingering anti-vaccine misinformation. This was compounded by statements by the state’s Surgeon General that “could appear to diminish, if not discredit, the use of vaccines”.
In March, disinformation swirled following a terrorist attack that killed over one hundred people in Moscow, Russia. This included misrepresented footage purportedly showing Russian military rehearsing the attack, as well as a variety of false accusations of Ukrainian involvement.
