Stop the democratisation of misinformation
Both the ECI and social media are acting to curb fake news. But to what extent?
About a decade ago, an infant social media almost brought about democratic revolutions in countries such as Egypt, Iran and Tunisia. But as it grows in its reach, influence and sophistication, it is, in many ways, posing a challenge for the functioning of democracies — which are yet to formulate an apt response to the crisis. From individual privacy, large data breaches to social manipulation, the charges against social media have grown to subvert democracy itself.
With the number of Internet users in India going up, this poses a threat here too. Anticipating that, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has wisely taken precautionary measures. But if the allegations of Russian interference in the US elections have any substance to them, it’s indeed an alarming thought for democracies, more so for the ones like India which are undergoing a tremendous social and economic transformation. Such a threat won’t be boundary-specific. Not that India is any stranger to rumours and fake information, or that the physical vandalism in elections is new. These are the issues that the ECI has successfully dealt with over the years. The modern avatar of these digital manipulations don’t coerce you physically, but, by its nature, it allows anyone anywhere to easily spread misinformation and affect the outcome — the Internet-led democratisation of information knows no boundary; so does, it would appear, the Internet-led democratisation of misinformation.
Major social media companies have pledged to join hands with the ECI. Fake information is unquestionably bad but we must not lose sight of the larger picture — like governments, we can’t trust social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, almost monopolies now, to be the arbiter of truth or the final word on privacy. The ECI’s measures, and social media’s promise, appear enough, prima facie. But to what extent? We will have to wait till 2019 for the answer.