Opinion: Falsehood trumps limping truth

Monopolisation of social media and other digital platforms is empowering right-wing forces to control the world

Propaganda, misinformation and fake news are nothing new in our society. It can be traced back to the time of Mahabharata when Yudhisthir, known for his unwavering truthfulness, misled Drona by declaring that Ashwathama was killed but murmured the latter part, “I do not know if it is a man or an elephant,” so softly that Drona could not hear it clearly. Believing Yudhisthir that his warrior son Ashwathama was killed, Drona bowed his head and was beheaded. Drona was one of the epical victims of fake news or disinformation.

Propaganda and misinformation have taken a new turn now with the widespread availability of sophisticated methods of information and communication technology. The sharing of text, images, videos or links online often allows information to go viral within no time. Merriam-Webster defines misinformation as false or inaccurate information that is mistakenly or inadvertently created or spread; the intent is not to deceive and disinformation as false information is deliberately created and spread “in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.”

Polarising Opinion

The terms ‘propaganda’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘fake news’ often overlap in meaning. They refer to a range of ways in which sharing information causes harm, intentionally or unintentionally – usually for the promotion of a particular moral or political cause or opinion. They have the potential to polarise public opinion, promote violence and hate speech that undermine democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes.

Copying, pasting, clicking and sharing content online have never been technologically so easy. This has helped misinformation and fake news to proliferate. In many cases, news stories are designed to provoke an emotional response and are seeded on certain sites to induce readers to share them widely. On the other hand such designed stories, and misinformation may be generated and disseminated by bots – a software application that is programmed to do certain tasks, which are intended to act like people sharing information but more quickly and automatically.

Knowing that one is susceptible to propaganda is only part of the battle. Combating and mitigating its impact on the citizens is important

One of the main reasons for Republican leader Donald Trump’s electoral success against the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was tech billionaire Elon Musk’s wholehearted support — financially and propaganda-wise. Musk has transformed X into an echo chamber amplifying right-leaning causes and, in particular, Trump’s electoral campaign. NBC News reported that Musk promoted the Election Integrity Community on X, a large group of users created by his super Political Action Committee (PAC), America PAC. The community was automatically added to a list of feeds users see when they logged into the microblogging site, and was full of users spreading conspiracy theories, misinformation, rumours, and suspicions about voter fraud. Studies and investigations, however, have found that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the US.

Fake News

The BBC identified networks of many accounts that repost or reshare each other’s content multiple times a day — including a mix of true, unfounded, false and faked material — to boost their reach, and therefore, revenue on the site. Many say earnings from their own and other accounts range from a couple of hundred to thousands of dollars. Americans went to the polls on November 5 against the backdrop of disinformation — much of it suspected to have originated in Russia like the one in the 2016 Presidential election — as the FBI warned of fake videos and non-credible threats of terrorism aimed at disrupting the election and discouraging voting.

The potential impact of fake news that led to Trump’s victory in 2016 was among the most contested controversies of his presidency. Although the State Department found proof of Russian election interference, whether that translated into a win for Trump is still widely argued against and doubted. However, the fact remains that of the known fake news stories that appeared in the three months before the election was, those favouring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook while those favouring Clinton were shared 8 million times. Just over half of average American adults said they believed the stories.

Russia’s reaction on November 6, 2024, on the day of the declaration of the US Presidential election result, hints at the country’s support for Trump. Russia said relations with the US were at a historic low, but that Kremlin was open to dialogue.

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In India, misinformation was spread during the pandemic on social media related to home remedies that were been verified, fake advisories and conspiracy theories like Corona-jihad. Fake news and manipulated content flooded social media during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), specifically targeting protesters. Members of the ruling BJP were seen to be sharing videos, falsely insinuating that the students of Aligarh Muslim University were raising anti-Hindu slogans.

Misinformation and disinformation related to Kashmir are widely prevalent. There have been multiple instances of pictures from the Syrian and the Iraqi civil wars being passed off as from the Kashmir conflict. Hate speeches, fake news and disinformation get a new push during election time. It happened during the 2019 parliamentary elections in India. However, with the development of AI and sharpening digital technology, the 2024 general elections were deeply impacted by fake news, disinformation and hate speeches.

AI-generated content presents new challenges to India’s voters, a parallel to how WhatsApp was rife with misinformation during the 2019 general elections. Fake news and disinformation are a real threat to democracies of the world. From Russia to Venezuela, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia to Hungary, and Croatia, deepfakes and disinformation are destabilising democracies. The monopolisation of the business of social media and other digital platforms by a handful of global conglomerates have created a universe of fake news and disinformation, empowering the right-wing forces to control the world.

We all are now targets of fake news and disinformation. Knowing that one is susceptible to propaganda is only part of the battle. Combating and mitigating its impact on the citizens is important. We must stop believing things unquestioningly. The mere appearance of some content in our Facebook feed or its media coverage does not make it true. Identifying the aim of the message, searching for its source, finding counterarguments against the arguments propagated in the message and listening to opposing views are some of the ways to countering fake news and disinformation.

English author Jonathan Swift, in his essay “The Art of Political Lying” wrote:

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.”

Society must raise its voice and act fast against the challenge of fake news and disinformation.