Sheikh Farkhanda
Disinformation in the age of globalization has become a serious concern. It has led to the manipulation of facts and the change in public perception of different events around them. Disinformation has, to a great extent, been a state sponsored project across globe. The deliberate act of spreading fake information has radically altered the situations on ground and has in a way been a source of putting facts under veil. The importance of a propaganda-free world in modern times is often disrupted by the organized and institutionalized spiral of disinformation. It has seriously led to the obfuscation of facts. A result of disinformation, a historicization has seen a sharp rise especially from the outset of the age of internet. United Nations (UN) says that disinformation involves “false information that is created and spread, deliberately or otherwise, to harm people, institutions and interests.” While as misinformation is mainly about unintentional errors, disinformation is altogether different from it. It has always been referred to as something the purpose of which is to intentionally deceive. Besides inciting violence, disinformation can escalate tensions, manipulate electoral processes and further the agenda of conspiracy theories. The roots of disinformation often times stem from the governments and non state actors and business men who use it as a tool to further their nefarious agenda. A more comprehensive definition of disinformation is that it is a subset of propaganda used intentionally deceives people. It is a kind of untrue communication spread purposefully and passed off as truth that serves the perpetrators purpose. There are serious consequences of disinformation in any country that can fuel tensions and create unrest among the local population. The more dangerous concern of this cycle, however, is the creation of an ignorant citizenry who are potential trouble makers and disrupters of peace and tranquillity. The rise of social media since past many years has grown exponentially. It has become a popular mode of getting news and other information. From state actors to non state actors – politicians, religious organizations, officials of state and private institutions, celebrities and sports personalities – every other person has been using these social networking sites for different purposes. Social media in a way has become a major tool of getting all kinds of news from authentic and unauthentic sources. There is a bombardment of information on these sites and people from different walks of life seek information, consume and use news on social media. While people seek news on different social media sites, a bombardment of news and other information, mostly related ones, pops up on their screen. People actively or passively are exposed to news online. Disinformation has remained a tool in history to deceive people. Famous regimes, kingsand monarchs in history have used it for different purposes. While as misinformation is any inaccuracy that stems from any unintentional error, disinformation has been referred to as a deliberate attempt to spread falsehood. Throughout history, disinformation has been used in Roman-Persian wars, Battle of Telephis-Ollaria, Gindarus, and Herculius assault on Persia.Social media provides a financially economical and easy mode of getting news and information. Despite the fact that an overwhelming number of population consumes content on social media, it has become a major source of misinformation as well as disinformation in recent times. Social networking sites have increasingly become main platforms of spreading disinformation. One among the basic reasons of these platforms being the major sources of spreading, in a systematic manner, the spiral of disinformation is the possibility of reaching the target audience. The organizers of the spiral easily find a target audience on these sites to which they intend to reach disinformation in a very easy way. People are exposed to the content that is in line with their religious and ideological preferences. Particularly on Face book, people are exposed to the content based on their likes, shares and comments. The fact that anyone can, in an easy way, make fake profiles and strengthen this cycle of disinformation makes it more worrying. Bots and algorithm-controlled accounts become easy and dangerous means of spreading disinformation on social networking sites thereby making viral the content that is based on obfuscation of facts. It is not just mistaken information that should be ignored, there are ideological, social and political agendas at play in this whole spiral of spreading this deliberately doctored information to mislead people and gain support in different situations. People like spin doctors, sensationalists and public relations officers and buisness tycoons are all part of this machinery of fake information. The use of disinformation for political gains has become the most common practice throughout the world. The spread and projection of disinformation has become dangerous for it has the potential to create a misinformed or ignorant citizenry who are highly likely to remain ignorant or uninformed throughout their lives. With the widespread use of social networking sites in Pakistan, social media platforms have got more and more infected by disinformation and fake news. Besides prominent politicians and government officials, common people have been sharing the content that falls under the category of fake news and disinformation. Pakistan has time and again come under spotlight for state induced disinformation and fake news. The role of state in disinformation programs is not a new phenomenon. During 1971 war, the national Radio of the country broadcasted that, “after an agreement between local commanders, ceasefire was declared in East Pakistan.” At the same time, BBC was reporting that the country’s Army had surrendered to Indian military. Free from any kind of restrictions, social media has become a tool on which any news, information or other related items spread like a wild fire. This online media faces no restrictions as does the traditional media. By 2016, the reach of social media was on rise with 1.8 billion active users of Face book and above 40 million users of Twitter. Besides this, it becomes possible to establish money making protocols through these online advertising platforms. Besides this, the other reason is a huge mistrust between people and traditional media platforms. The biases and prejudices such as ideological, political and economic prevalent in traditional print and electronic media makes people more and more inclined towards online media thereby an even big market for disinformation and fake news. This huge circulation of news items within no time makes social networking sites a great potential medium for disinformation. Disinformation affects a society badly. Among all the consequences of its circulation, the most dangerous is the creation of a society who remains unaware of facts and shapes their public opinion in a very negative manner. Obfuscation of facts and a historicization are other harmful effects that stem from the circulation of disinformation as well as misinformation. Since an overwhelming majority of people across continents are active users of social media platforms, the chances of consequences becoming more serious and irreparable.
