Mudassir Rizwan

The aftermath of the stabbing of 3 young girls in the UK last month sparked white supremacist riots and attacks against Muslims and other migrant communities across the country. Though the attacker of these girls was a British-born teenager, it was the fake news and disinformation spread about him being a migrant and a Muslim by some renowned media personalities, including social media influencer Andrew Tate, that ultimately led to the outbreak of a spree of attacks against Muslims and other people of colour.  This is just one instance of how social media, despite its many advantages, is sowing the seeds of unrest and instability in various societies.

This issue of fake news and disinformation is not limited to just one society. Instead, as globalization takes societies under its fold, leading them to become economically and digitally increasingly connected, fake news and disinformation threaten to deepen further the social, political and cultural divides within societies. Propagation of twisted narratives in favour or against a political group is the most effective weapon, thus resulting in poor quality of the public’s political consciousness. This leads to the erosion of trust in the institutions and people’s aloofness from the political process as they start to believe they do not matter. Moreover, as the latest riots in the UK show, the spread of fake news and misinformation also destroys the social fabric by pitching the majority against vulnerable communities, especially religious minorities and migrants.

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Countering fake news and disinformation has become challenging for several reasons, the most important being the constant deluge of information and the speed at which it reaches the public domain. Against this backdrop, developing countries, even developed states, need more fact-checking mechanisms, digital infrastructure, and a comprehensive policy framework to combat this epidemic of falsehood. The situation becomes even worse in countries like Pakistan, which is struggling to keep itself economically afloat.

Employing fake news and disinformation as a political weapon by politicians against their opponents has also worsened matters. The politicians, being the repository of public trust, instead of realizing the disruptive potential of fake news and disinformation, have used to discredit, character-assassinate, and humiliate their opponents. The absence of digital literacy has made the public a fodder for political leaders’ propaganda and allowed it to be used by the political elite to further their personal interests.

If countering this malaise was already proving difficult, the advent of AI has significantly added another layer of complexity to the issue of fake news. Deepfake videos, photos, etc., along with doctored speeches, have already been employed in elections of various countries, such as India, EU state elections, etc. The fact that the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report of 2024 terms disinformation as the biggest short-term risk for the world is illustrative of the gravity of the situation. The level of sophistication provided by AI in creating deepfakes, coupled with the potential of social media to amplify it at a massive scale, offsets any attempts by a government to tackle the issue on its own effectively.

Summarizing the discussion, it can be argued that in today’s digital world, fake news and disinformation have become as significant a threat to the stability of states as terrorism. Since it transcends borders and cultural boundaries, the solution lies in the global community coming together and chalking out a comprehensive mechanism to regulate the use of AI and online platforms to propagate fake news. In this regard, a convention on preventing fake news and disinformation, with the backing of all the states, is the first of many steps required to overcome this menace.

Along with that, respective states need to take steps to educate their masses about the potential of fake news to disrupt societies and how it spreads through their actions. Digital literacy programs, mass inoculation against fake news, online content regulation laws, and input from industry experts are some of the valuable tools to counter this threat. However, media professionals and influencers also have a crucial role in combating fake news by promoting fact-based reporting and the responsible sharing of information.

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