A new war has broken out. This is not a battle of guns or armies but is a battle of words, thoughts and ideas. The battlefield has become the internet with the electronic pen proving mightier than soldiers, wielding global influence in swaying the minds of the public.
With the internet, the public is being constantly fed with a barrage of information, opinions and news that can easily lead to manipulation of public thought. This is particularly problematic as it has become difficult to discern fact from lie, with the ever-growing number of online media outlets spewing information to feed public addiction leading to an information overload. A recent example of this can be seen with the range of opinions and counter opinions regarding the COVID virus, its origin, worries about vaccines, mutating strains, government lockdowns, curfews and more.

This has gone from being a pandemic to an ‘infodemic’ where too much information is available - correct or incorrect - causing tensions and stress to what already is a difficult time for everybody. The increasing encroachment of technology companies in the media and their ability to sway public opinion is extremely disturbing and demands that they take more responsibility for the content on their platforms. Misinformation on the internet, just during the COVID pandemic has been epic, with everybody going to the internet for answers, cures, opinions and more. It is amazing to see how much our world has changed just over the past twelve months, with people debating over issues that would have been the fields of experts in the past, with everyone now having an ‘opinion’.
While being informed is a good thing, having little knowledge can be detrimental and having incorrect information even is worse. What is more challenging is that often consumers have no way of knowing what information is correct, relying almost blindly on technology companies as their sources of truth; effectively replacing the opinions of seasoned professionals with rumor. Globally, this has led to a deepening mistrust between consumers and politicians as well as a greater polarization of opinions.
Technology companies have become geopolitical actors and information is now being weaponized by lobbies to push certain agendas, shape public opinion, promote conspiracy theories and even influence elections and financial markets. This provides rife opportunity for malicious actors that want to affect public opinions, arming them with an arsenal of online tools, making this issue one of national and global security. It is clear that our international electronic space needs to be effectively governed just as much as our physical borders. This requires governments to have robust frameworks in place to oversee and monitor these companies and bring them to account in a fair and transparent manner to better protect consumers from incorrect information.
The greater influence of the cyber realm and the ongoing resistance to a freely accessible internet has led to certain countries adopting draconian measures to ban access to certain parts of the internet so that the state can control what its citizens see and influence public opinion. This has been introduced in the guise of curbing misinformation, but in reality is being used to restrict democratic freedoms, promote state agendas and drown opposition voices, which can hardly be seen as a fair use of such powers.
As this infodemic proliferates, technology companies have taken action by introducing policies to take down misinformation, particularly related to COVID 19 fake news. They now have some measures in place to flag and remove such content with guidance from public entities and officials, but still much work needs to be done to stop this and promote content from trusted sources. Junk news websites seem to becoming more sophisticated in their approach by adopting advances search engine optimization to achieve high-ranking results and are slipping into consumer searches.

The very crux of the problem is that these companies’ business models are based on likes, shares and views, generating them massive fortunes from consumers watching videos and associated advertisements. If further progress is to be made in the attempt to reduce misinformation, their very business model needs to be altered as presently there is little incentive for them to display less controversial content, as it ultimately affects their bottom line advertising revenues.  Fact checking is certainly a key exercise here but is only part of the puzzle that needs a more comprehensive response.

With all this in mind, I believe a more robust approach needs to be adopted. That includes:
Greater regulation and legislation of technology companies
More transparency into how their technology works
Greater technical competency within governments and ministries
Robust policies that are regularly reviewed in line with new innovations
Monitoring technology companies in order to put consumers first
Having the needed communication networks in place to deal with infodemics and misinformation
Building strong public-private partnerships to encourage knowledge and skills transfer
Setting up independent commissions to look into cases of misinformation for accountability purposes
Digital technologies are an essential element of developing a sustainable future for our world. They are playing a greater role in increasing productivity, facilitating trade, creating new opportunities and helping to inform consumers. These are vital resources that require better governance and protection to avoid malicious use, so that our consumers are equipped with correct, timely information that in turn helps them to be more productive actors in society.
The dynamics between cybercrime, governments, technology companies and disinformation needs to be better investigated and adequately addressed as people are starting to lose faith with things as they presently stand. Greater public trust needs to be developed on both national and international levels to better protect rights and limit long-lasting detrimental impacts that misinformation has.