The truth is dead. Now what?
The scourge of disinformation has surfaced as the gravest threat in this digital age. It is a silent epidemic that is dismantling the pillars of truth, eroding the foundations of democracy, undermining social cohesion, triggering polarization, and amplifying divisions across the world.
In this age of technology, where digital media is flooded with information, lies now spread more swiftly than truth. It is dangerously influencing perceptions, altering the outcomes of elections, and even redefining the nature of wars. As we have already witnessed in the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli establishment relied on propaganda, disinformation, and fake news to conceal its gross war crimes.
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once remarked, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” This proposition resonates with today’s world, as people fall prey to both forms of deception. It has become a herculean task to distinguish between falsehood and truth in the face of a deluge of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news.
The digital revolution was once hailed for becoming the hub of knowledge and information, but worryingly, it has been turned into a breeding ground for misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. Social media platforms are meant to connect the world but have become an enabling environment for fabrication and manipulation. Algorithms prefer fallacy over accuracy and engagement over authenticity.
As author Yuval Noah Harari writes beautifully in his book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” “In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.” Yet clarity is caught with ambiguity. The massive scale of misinformation blurs the line between truth and falsehoods, which renders the public opinions warped and general perception polarized.
Across the world, states, global organizations, digital platforms, extremist groups, and multinational corporations have weaponized disinformation to garner power and profit. The 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit drive are two notable examples in which the wave of disinformation swept across all social media, thus influencing millions of people. Likewise, in the span of the coronavirus pandemic, disinformation on vaccines jeopardized global public health responses.
The ramifications of disinformation are not only confined to social, cultural, political, economic, and financial domains but also extend to the military domain. It has become a potent instrument in the war machinery. Russia’s reliance on propaganda in the Ukraine War and Israel-Hamas’s information warfare on social media demonstrates that lies sometimes can be as lethal as bullets.
Hannah Arendt, in her book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism” mentions that, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… no longer exists.” Her warning is hauntingly pertinent in today’s post-truth world where reality is disregarded and truth is no longer relevant.
In order to combat disinformation, there is a pressing need for global cooperation to enhance media literacy, restore responsible journalism, and tame the unbridled clout of tech companies. Citizens must develop critical thinking by doubting and questioning every piece of information they come across on social media.
Thus, the battle against disinformation is a fight for authenticity. In today’s digital age, the biggest threat of contemporary ’s world is not the nuclear war or climate change but the epidemic of disinformation. All journalists, social media activists, and internet users must shun passive consumption of information and prioritize fact-checking and verification from trusted sources.
The writer is a freelance contributor based in Quetta.