It's a realm that has been described by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a "coward's palace".
And, according to US whistleblower Frances Haugen, has the power to "harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy."
Yet misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms continues and there is no easy fix.
Politicians have blamed Facebook's failure to rein in anonymous trolls, as calls for greater government regulation grow.
Yet between the tech giant and government, there are other key players in the prevention of misinformation — the everyday users.
For those 'on the fence'
Jenna Schröder manages a community Facebook group usually reserved for posts about missing pets, business recommendations and sunset photos.
The group, which has about 4,300 members, is used by residents in the Gold Coast suburb of Labrador to share local information.
But in a lengthy post published this week, Ms Schröder outlined her policy to remove COVID-conspiracies and anti-vaccine comments.
"You are not a scientist."
Ms Schröder said she would not change the minds of conspiracy theorists.
But she said those managing such community groups had a responsibility to weed out false information.
"The more you argue against them, the more you strengthen their belief," she said.
"It's important to give them the best chance of reading correct information."
Misinformation versus disinformation
Misinformation and disinformation often fall under the umbrella term of 'fake news' — a topic studied in depth by La Trobe University's Associate Professor Andrea Carson in the Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy.
"Trust in family and friends online over the 18 months of the pandemic has actually gone up, whereas trust in politicians and journalists has gone down," she said.
"Citizens need to recognise that if they don't know the veracity or the truthfulness of the information, don't share it."
Misinformation can be spread without the explicit intent to deceive or harm others and can include satirical articles or even clickbait.
"[But] that's problematic because we do know that since COVID, misinformation can cause harm and we've seen that with some of the false advice over COVID treatments," Associate Professor Carson said.
Disinformation, however, is the intentional spread of misleading information in pursuit of a deliberate goal.
"But there is a degree of overlap because we can't always divine what someone's intention is," she said.
It's a complicated issue that taps into freedom of speech and censorship, but also challenges those just trying to form a community connection.
How to regulate or prevent?
In February, tech giants like Facebook and Google adopted a voluntary code of conduct aimed at stemming the spread of mis/disinformation.
The code gives each platform discretion over what measures to implement, ranging from the prioritisation of official and credible sources, to labelling or removing false information or accounts.
"It'll be reviewed by the media authority and the government at the start of next year and then we'll get a picture about how satisfactory these measures have been," Associate Professor Carson said.
She said the role of government was the "seminal question" but that "we don't want commercial businesses being the arbiters of what should be taken down".
"We need to have a degree of government regulation around this at arm's length."
Associate Professor Carson said finding the balance had proven problematic in "electoral autocracies" like Indonesia and Singapore, whose laws have been criticised for potentially suppressing media freedom and silencing political opposition.
"Many of these countries have rushed to enact these laws under the cover of COVID," she said.
“It's a way to strengthen government power."
'Laugh reacts on death'
Ms Schröder, who is studying a Masters of Digital Communication, said "a lot of people do solely get news off social media, they have distrust in the news".
She only posts information about COVID from official sources like Queensland Health.
"I'm keeping it pretty limited, so really not posting much about COVID, but if I'm sharing contact tracing, I’ll turn off comments straight away," she said.
"I don't want to deal with the conspiracies that get posted."
But more broadly, Ms Schröder says she's worried about how the tone of conversation on Facebook has been changing.
"Initially it was concern and being afraid — now it is anger and people trying to irritate people," she said.
"Seeing laugh reacts on death and things like that, just blows my mind."
