Building trust amid post-truth infodemics

Francis Fukuyama is a strong supporter of democracies based on trust building. His book, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, advocates trust as an essential building block of democracies. Additionally, he argues that the decline of democracies in the post-truth era is due to the backsliding of trust in society. Human societies evolved and matured with the transition of consolidated trust from one phase to another. As we progress in trust building, we moved forward in democracies, accountability and responsibility. The unprecedented digital transformation has questioned the sustainability of trust in our societies with the rise of digital bots, fake stories, conspiracies, malignant campaigns and rumours. All these negative tendencies of digital spaces have led to a crisis of trust in society. The helter-skelter trust between state and individuals hamstrung public validity on institutions; and crisis of governability due to lack of public consensus over the state is the outcome of the infodemic in the 21st century. The digital disorder has caused anomalies in people’s behaviours which ultimately empowers populist and authoritarian leaders who malign information to confirm pre-existing beliefs of people.

Trust-building in information sources is a fundamental issue to recognise and address in order to promote a culture of accuracy. Fact-checking and verification techniques can be employed before the prevalence of any information. Political polarisation is caused by propagating false and inaccurate news. Multiple stakeholders like individuals, organisations, governments and civil society can play a vital role in combating the pandemic of false information. For example, in India, the fact-checking website named Alt News has been an efficient mechanism to verify the source of information before its dissemination. It fact-checks images, news and videos and publish verified data on its website.

Post-truth infodemic is an existential threat to the stability of institutions and democracy in society. Civil society can play an effective role in combating this growing threat. Media literacy and critical thinking should be developed to deal with the flow of information. We are living amid a flood of information so it is a huge responsibility to understand and critically analyse the source and origin of information before its dissemination. Misinformation spreads like wild fire because the digital media tends to spread negative news with more intensity. In Pakistan, Digital Rights Foundation’s ‘Hamara Internet’ campaign has been considered vital to combating misinformation. This campaign has played a critical role in promoting media literacy and identifying different prisms to sieve false information. Such initiatives should be embraced and encouraged.

Trust-building in post-truth societies is a very complicated and multifaceted phenomenon. To deal with it, we can use different techniques. It is an urgent need to develop emotional resilience and coping skills. False information can lead to anger, anxiety and stress. Development of emotional resilience can help reduce psychological effects of the infodemic.

In the cognitive load theory, it is argued that humans have a certain capacity to process information effectively. After certain limits, the overload of information may lead to an overwhelming response. It is mandatory to provide people with concise and clear information. The overloading of information may lead to biases and loss of ability to perceive it in a good manner.

In conclusion, Cass Sunstein in his book, Republic.com, argues that Internet has developed echo chambers where the public can prefer to only consume data reinforcing their preexisting beliefs. He implies that this can lead to a fragmentation of shared values and a breakdown of trust in state institutions. This is a serious threat to our societies. Trust-building in society is vital for improving our governance, institutions and social setup.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2023.

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