DIGITAL DISINFORMATION IS BREAKING THE TRUTH, BUT WE KNOW HOW TO RETALIATE
Society
‘Digital disinformation’, commonly known as fake news, is defined as false content spread with the specific intent to deceive, mislead or manipulate. It can appear as plausible Whatsapp messages, Facebook and Instagram posts, tweets, advertisements and even videos uploaded on YouTube. What is an even more advanced form of digital disinformation is called “deepfakes”— video and audio recordings in which computers can literally put words in someone’s mouth.[1]
In this day and age, digital disinformation has become a prime concern: we all rely on information mainly acquired through social media or digitally nowadays to communicate, generate ideas, research and evaluate results. But what if all this information turns out to be erroneous? Our society will be destroyed! Hence, in order to counter digital disinformation, we must first understand how does it rise and penetrate into our society. That said, let’s have a look at its causes.
One of the factors engendering digital disinformation is “information overload”. Daily, our social media accounts are inundated with news feeds belonging to both the categories — some being genuine, while others being mendacious. Research has revealed that even when we want to share legitimate information, the inability to view everything in our newsfeeds eventually results in us passing on information that is partially or even utterly untrue. Further, ‘confirmation biases’ dramatically worsen the problem. ‘Confirmation bias’ is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.[2] This issue is particularly difficult to resolve, and so when people are even presented with balanced information — comprising of views from both sides — in their news feeds, they are liable to merely look for supporting evidence for what they already believe and remember it. Moreover, making matters even worse, search engines and social media platforms provide personalized recommendations to users, utilizing the enormous amounts of data they have about the users’ past preferences. These platforms prioritize information in the users’ newsfeeds that they are most likely to concur with, meanwhile neglecting the levels of validity of these newsfeeds. Hence, this obscures any information from us that might change our perspective and only gives way to greater polarization. Another factor responsible for the spread of digital disinformation is ‘social herding’. Among humans, social conformity — a type of social influence involving a change in belief and behavior in order to fit in with a group[3]- is ubiquitous. The social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, adjust viral content at the top of our screens and we, by confusing popularity with quality, are prompted to pay attention to it and ultimately share it, thus further augmenting its vogue. Last but not the least, rise of the bots also plays a role in the expansion of digital disinformation. A bot is an autonomous program on the internet, or another network, that can interact with systems or users.[4] These bots are easy to develop, and they are planted in such staggering numbers across all social media platforms that according to a finding in 2017, approximately up to 15% of active Twitter accounts were bots. In the past, this powerful tool has been used to spread disinformation deliberately among people at different times in order to fulfill desired aims. For example, during the US 2016 elections, bots were the main reason behind Trump’s apparent popularity and success on the social media sites.
Besides the factors mentioned above, others may also exist. Nonetheless, our stroke of luck is that we have already determined ways to suppress digital disinformation. One way is to create appropriate mobile apps, programs and softwares. Such mobile apps can themselves spot disinformation instantly or teach social media users how to detect it when they come across it on any social media platform. A few examples are Fakey, Hoaxy and BotSlayer. Education and awareness campaigns can also help. People can learn how to scan pieces of information for veracity using a number of ways, like checking for the author, origin of the information, etc.. Last and perhaps the most effective way is to enact laws, and bring suitable institutional changes. There should be laws dictating severe punishments to anyone found responsible for spreading disinformation digitally, for eg. a Singaporean law that took effect Oct.2 allows for criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million for anyone convicted of disseminating “falsehoods that affect the public interest” that the government itself identifies.[5] Likewise, social media platforms should also make amendments in their policies, like Google and Facebook have started requiring political ads in the US and Europe to disclose who is behind them.
Following the above-mentioned ways, it is quite easily conceivable that we will be able to retaliate successfully in order to prevent digital disinformation from breaking the truth. In this way, we will be able to lead our lives in the right path by being equipped with valid information.
[1] Shelly Banjo | Bloomberg, “Analysis | How Digital Disinformation Sows Hate, Hurts Democracy: QuickTake,” Washington Post, accessed December 16, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-digital-disinformation-sows-hate-hurts-democracy-quicktake/2020/02/26/07ce0914-58af-11ea-8efd-0f904bdd8057_story.html.
[2] “Confirmation Bias Means — Google Search,” accessed December 18, 2020, https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&sxsrf=ALeKk01edZKLMkEcRL0krg6QQkAHcRWYgQ%3A1608316438539&ei=FvbcX8-5IMuP8gLs64SQBA&q=confirmation+bias+means&oq=confirmation+bias+means&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIMCCMQyQMQJxBGEPkBMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeOgQIABBHOgkIIxAnEEYQ-QE6BwgAEMkDEEM6BAgAEEM6AggAOgUIABDJAzoICAAQyQMQxAJQ1k1YiVRgv1hoAHADeACAAZICiAGGC5IBAzItNpgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrIAQjAAQE&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjPnIXQldjtAhXLh1wKHew1AUIQ4dUDCA0&uact=5.
[3] “What Is Conformity? | Simply Psychology,” accessed December 18, 2020, https://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html.
[4] “Bot Means — Google Search,” accessed December 18, 2020, https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&sxsrf=ALeKk02rImmKXUYC9kHq0NNWtPxbiogbpg%3A1608316353645&ei=wfXcX9fyJsuZgQaegJQY&q=bot+means&oq=bot+means&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIJCCMQJxBGEPkBMggIABDJAxCRAjIHCAAQsQMQQzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BAgAEEc6BAgjECc6BwgAEMkDEEM6BAgAEEM6BwgjEOoCECc6DQguEMcBEKMCEMkDEEM6CAgAELEDEIMBOgUIABCxAzoLCC4QsQMQxwEQrwE6BQgAEJECOgQILhBDOg4IABCxAxCDARDJAxCRAjoHCAAQFBCHAjoKCAAQsQMQFBCHAjoCCC5QkWdYh4ABYMOBAWgBcAJ4BIABuAOIAaAdkgEHMi04LjQuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXqwAQrIAQjAAQE&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwiX18enldjtAhXLTMAKHR4ABQMQ4dUDCA0&uact=5.
[5] Bloomberg, “Analysis | How Digital Disinformation Sows Hate, Hurts Democracy.”
