Spend any amount of time in any of the Social Media platforms, and you are likely to see one person accuse some other person of spreading Mis(Dis)information. Now, let’s look at what Mis(Dis)information is, and what it is not.
What Mis(Dis)information is: Mis(Dis)information is a statement or assertion that can be factually demonstrated to be false. If a man runs into a movie theater and screams fire, and there is no fire, his assertion that there is a fire is not factually accurate. Whether or not he believes there is a fire is not relevant. There is no fire. So the statement is Mis(Dis)information. The statement can be factually demonstrated to be untrue, because no fire will be found.
What Mis(Dis)information is not: If a man runs into a theater and yells fire, and there is a fire, but you do not want there to be a fire, it is not Mis(Dis)information. If there being a fire does not fit your world view, that does not make it Mis(Dis)information. If the possibility of a theater fire makes you uncomfortable, that does not make it Mis(Dis)information. If the presence of the fire proves your position to be wrong, that does not make it Mis(Dis)information. Because the fire can be factually proven true, the statement that there is a fire, no matter how inconvenient, no matter how uncomfortable, is NOT Mis(Dis)information.