Paul Gallagher will be the host of Surf Coast Skepticamp 2026, and will also present Social Media and Misinformation. This topic looks at the role of social media in spreading misinformation and its importance in launching disinformation.

Paul has spoken at SCSC in 2024 and 2025. He was also a speaker at Skepticon 2025 in Melbourne. He has an interest in how misinformation impacts public health policy, particularly related to the anti-vaccination lobby. Paul was awarded Australian Skeptic of the Year in 2023 and enjoys maintaining his blog Losing In The Lucky Country: Skeptical musings on the denial of evidence.

Social Media has proven a challenging dynamic for advocates interested in promoting facts and refuting bogus claims that often involve attacks on evidence-based health practices, science institutions and esteemed science educators. For those of us interested in positive outcomes related to critical thinking or engaging in skeptical activism, today we recognise social media as a source of misinformation and a tool for organising misleading events IRL.

Since its advent, anti-science groups have exploited social media and found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, like-minded individuals gathered to share their frustrations and spread nonsense from conspiracy theories to harmful so-called alternatives to medicine. Today there are hundreds of groups that tend to share a desire to reject reality and fill the resultant vacuum, not only with their own opinion, but their own facts.