Introduction

This introductory chapter introduces three interrelated ways in which social media misinformation interferes with the acquisition of knowledge. Such misinformation threatens to deceive its consumers, to encourage excessive distrust, and to reduce the evidential power of legitimate information encountered online. These challenges are illustrated through historical examples and analogies. It is argued—contra recent suggestions—that social media misinformation is a significant problem. The chapter then provides a brief introduction to content moderation as a tool for mitigating the threats of misinformation, as well as the basic controversy surrounding the use of content moderation. This is followed by an overview of the book’s chapters. The chapter concludes by motivating the study of social media misinformation and content moderation through an epistemological lens.