The definition of misinformation is information that is "incorrect or misleading" while disinformation is "false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth." The major difference between the two is that misinformation is spread usually as a misunderstanding or crazy conspiracy theory, while disinformation is used intentionally for political or economic gain.
Social media has become many people's only source of information due to it's wide accessibility from all ages and it's many wide and diverse perspectives on different topics. When misinformation is spread through social media, it's either a conspiracy theory like that global warming is a hoax -- or it can be severely worse like misinformation about Ebola which confused many healthcare workers. Although misinformation is usually spread through regular people, disinformation is spread by powerful people or people looking to cause harm. A major example of this that is happening today is disinformation being spread by Russia about the war in Ukraine. Russia is creating fake news accounts to report events in Ukraine to paint Ukraine as the villain and Russia as the savior.
Misinformation and disinformation are both spread in similair ways. One of the most popular ways that false information is spread is through fake-news networks. This has become easier in this day and age; due to the fact that you can simply create a social media account with the word "news" in it and you can start spreading information through it, and since you are passing yourself off as a news account; people are more inclined to believe in what you post. It also spreads through the use of AI, which is used to create a large amount of bots that are seen in comment sections or posting on social media about false information. A few years ago, it was also easier to tell the difference between a bot and a human, but since AI is advancing quickly; bots have started to mimic human speech patterns to become more believable. While AI is advancing, audio and video editing is also getting more advanced to the point where almost anybody can change what someone looks like or is saying. This is a major problem because people are more likely to believe something when they see it, and if now what people see can be edited; many more people will like believe in the information.
Although many people ask how people can fall for something like global warming or what Russia says, you have to know the situation of the people who do fall for it. For example, if you are in another country like Russia who has restricted access on social media to what you can see, it is easy to be conviced about what happend during an event when that's the only point of view you can see. Another way people fall for false information is because the fake information the person is seeing fits in with the person's social norms or their personal belief system. Other than that, AI is advancing which means telling the difference between an AI and a human will become harder every year.