According to a recently released report by the World Economic Forum titled Global Risks Report 2024 reveals that India has topped the list for when it comes to the countries that are having wide networks of misinformation and disinformation. According to experts, out of all potential risks India is the country which is most at risk for its citizens to encounter fake news and misinformation. This ranking comes before concerns about infectious diseases, illicit economic activities, wealth and income inequality, and labour shortages. Other nations at high risk for the impacts of misinformation and disinformation include El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Romania, Ireland, Czechia, the United States, Sierra Leone, France, and Finland. In these countries, the threat is considered to be among the 4th-6th most hazardous risks out of a total of 34 anticipated over the next two years, contrary to India where it is the number one risk. India seems to have carved a unique niche for itself as a landscape where misinformation persists. The Global Risk report links the spread of fake news to societal violence.

Al Jazeera also reported that on a global scale the misinformation circulating on social media since October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel revealed that that a considerable portion of it originates from or is propagated by accounts aligned with right-wing inclinations and are based in India.

What are the factors that are involved?

In India, according to Statista, about 687 million internet users are plugged into their mobiles, getting the lowdown. Furthermore, according to a 2023 survey by Reuters and the University of Oxford, a solid 72 percent of people in India are scrolling through for their news online on their phones, with social media playing a significant role in providing the news.

Thereby, in comparison, only 40 percent of respondents resort to print media during the same period. India, being the second-largest internet market globally. According to Statista, a big factor behind this is when back in 2007, Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio services in 2007 played a pivotal role, introducing enticing schemes and subsidies that transcended income levels and socio-economic classes. The repercussions were fast and quick as Jio services took control over 60 percent of mobile data traffic within a decade of their launch.

How is India’s press fairing at this turn? Continuing a downward trajectory observed since 2017, India witnessed a further decline in its press freedom ranking, landing at 161 out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index unveiled by Reporters without Borders. Scoring 36.6, India has found itself as one of the countries where the liberty of the press faced significant threats. The assessment of the Press Freedom Index for 2023 takes into account various factors and is based on a survey of the country’s political, economic, and sociocultural contexts, as well as the legal framework and safety levels within the country.

The government in 2023 also publicised attempts to tackle fake news. In January 2023, the Editor’s Guild of India had called upon the government to stop the amendments to the IT Rules - 2021 that were being made by the Ministry of Electronics and Technology.

EGI is deeply concerned by amendment to IT Rules 2021 made by MEITY, giving authority to PIB to determine veracity of news reports, and directing online intermediaries and social media platforms to take down content deemed as ‘fake’. Guild feels this is akin to censorship. pic.twitter.com/uy49cOwTcT

— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 18, 2023

They were asserting that this new step would include changes to the country's information-technology regulations and thus would amount to censorship. The proposal would give the government power to prevent social media platforms from sharing any information that could be flagged by authorities as false. The move was seen by journalists as a means to gather power and control over the internet and journalism. The changes proposed by the government included that if there were any information categorised by the government as “fake” by the government’s Press Information Bureau then the government would deliberate actions to prevent that information being shared or disseminated in any way on the internet.

India marked as country most prone to ‘social polarisation’

Health, religion, and politics are the most common topics that fake news revolves around, according to a survey by the Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research. Similarly, the Global Risk Report has found strong links between misinformation and social polarisation. It has ranked polarisation among the top three risks across both the present and the next two years across the globe.

Just like the incident of riots in England cited above where rumours from social media abounded and led to heightened communal sentiments, rumours have been historically linked to propagating riots. With the coming of social media and the surge in fake news, the ground becomes even more worrisome for fakes news to lead to violence. Thus, the report by WEF further highlights that polarisation is made worse with technological threats as they are often not kept in mind by the government. Furthermore, the report identifies India as the country most susceptible to experiencing heightened social polarisation in the upcoming year due to the surge in misinformation and the proliferation of false narratives.

A recent report from BOOM Live's survey of fact checks revealed an alarming conclusion where it was noted that Muslims in India are the primary targets of misinformation and disinformation campaigns which are fuelled by communal sentiments. The examination was based on data accumulated over the past three years and highlights a consistent pattern of fake news disproportionately affecting the Muslim community. According to BOOM Live's findings spanning from 2021 to 2023, the Muslim community remained the main focus and arguing point in numerous disinformation campaigns.

The Global Risks Report 2024 by the WEF had highlighted how vulnerable the global scene and landscape has become due to the effects of the pandemic. It states that pandemic has created “fertile ground” for the rampant spread of misinformation and disinformation.

During the pandemic, a report by Vice detailed that there was an alarming surge in misinformation. Some of this, according to the report, would often come from government sources. The report details that the spread of fake news has generally been associated with issues ranging from Islamophobia and conspiracy theories to unverified herbal remedies and the congregation of migrant workers. Presently, unverified assertions, like the questionable ‘COVID-19 cure’ promoted by herbal company Patanjali and flagged by official bodies as misleading, continue to circulate.

BJP and its multiple links to fake news campaigns

According to a report by The Print from 2020, a recent study was conducted by a software analyst who looked at the prevalence of propaganda and fake news on Twitter which revealed an alarming pattern. He noted that for every account that promoted the Congress and shared misleading information, there were reportedly about 120 accounts who did the similar task but favouring the BJP. The study further showed that there were 17,779 such accounts that were supporting the BJP compared to 147 linked to the Congress.

Similarly, a field report by Washington Post uncovered an operation that there's a hidden campaign behind the trolls present online. This is behind the scenes and is separate from the official social media trends. Insights from BJP staff, campaign consultants, and party supporters, shared in the ground-breaking report by Washington Post in September 2023, has exposed the party's covert partnerships with anonymous content creators who oversee what they term as "third-party" or "troll" pages. These content creators excel in producing incendiary posts which are designed to polarise and communalise sentiments on platforms like WhatsApp. This is done to cater to the party's base. Furthermore, the Washington Post report delves deeper into Meta, the parent company overseeing WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. It revealed that Meta's repeatedly failed to sufficiently act against the dissemination of hate content, including fake news. There are also claims of leniency towards BJP leaders who breached its terms. SabrangIndia's coverage earlier last year had looked at Meta's annual human rights report and noted that activists are unhappy and critical and have pointed out that the platform is uninterested in curating a strategy to quell rampant hate.

Related:

BJP’s “parallel” IT Cell exposed by Washington Post

India’s Struggle for Social Harmony: Challenges Amidst Surge in Hate Speech

Imposters posing as Muslims: A sinister ploy to further stigmatise

The post India tops list of countries at risk due to misinformation: what does this mean for India’s democracy? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Sri Lanka has temporarily banned social media and messaging apps in the wake of the coordinated Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels across the country, which killed at least 290 people.

Security personnel near St Anthony’s Church Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka. April 22, 2019. EPA Images

The ban is ostensibly to stop the spread of misinformation – and the move feeds into the wider debate about how Facebook and other platforms are used to incite violence and spread hate speech. In Myanmar, for example, Facebook was heavily criticised for allowing groups to use its pages to incite violence against the Rohingya community. In New Zealand, it came under fire after it was used to live-stream the Christchurch massacre.

But in Sri Lanka, as in many other countries, Facebook and social media platforms generally have created a positive space for public conversation that did not exist before.

The country has a long history of censoring the press, by killing journalists, blocking websites and using draconian laws to fine and imprison reporters. The media that remained was divided by language and geography – there were no outlets used and trusted equally by the Sinhala-speaking majority in the south and west of the country and the Tamil speaking minority in the north and east.

Social media, therefore, became a way to share stories and comment on current affairs. This hasn’t always been positive – it has also been used to spread ethnic and religious chauvinism, echoing the language used by politicians and mainstream media over the decades. Nevertheless, it has been crucial for promoting intra-ethnic dialogue in Sri Lanka.

During, and indeed after, the country’s long civil war there have been few opportunities for young adults from different communities to talk to one other and exchange views. Facebook and Twitter were beginning to provide a space for this. Websites such as Groundviews also publish citizen journalism from across the island and have used social media to reach audiences within Sri Lanka and overseas.

In October 2018, for example, president Maithripala Sirisena sparked a constitutional crisis when he effectively tried to overturn the results of a recent election, and replace the sitting prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, with former president Mahinda Rajapakse. As Rajapakse’s supporters seized control of the country’s state media, journalists instead took to Twitter to document what was going on.

This attempted constitutional coup only ended after street protests by citizens, and strong opposition from parliamentarians. Both groups used Facebook to organise and mobilise themselves – and a parliamentary brawl, during which Rajapaksa’s supporters attacked the speaker, was broadcast on YouTube.

Sirisena re-instituted Wickremasinghe as prime minister after a seven week standoff, but the two men have an uneasy and often dysfunctional political relationship.
 

Intelligence failures

Easter Sunday’s terror attacks have raised a whole new set of questions, about intelligence failures and party politics. In particular, the prime minister told reporters that his cabinet did not receive intelligence reports almost two weeks ago about a possible attack, mainly because the prime minister and his cabinet were not invited to national security council meetings that are led by the president. Wickremsinghe has now ordered an inquiry into this.

Grieving relatives wait to receive the bodies of family members, who were killed in a series of blasts in Sri Lanka. April 22, 2019. EPA Images

This is the second time the government has shut down social media. It first did so earlier this year after a wave of anti-Muslim riots but has done little since to improve relations between the country’s various groups.

There is also little evidence that the shutdown was effective, not least because determined groups can set up virtual private networks (VPNs) which allow them to bypass the restrictions, and find other ways to spread their message.

A study on the impact of internet shutdowns in India also showed that information blackouts can even lead to a spike in violent protests, as those who would otherwise organise non-violent protests find themselves unable to mobilise peacefully.

Sri Lanka is also about to pass a new anti-terror bill – the Counter Terrorism Act. It is meant to replace the current draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was used during the civil war, with one more that is more in line with international norms. But civil rights groups, including Amnesty International, point out that the new act still allows for the bulk interception and decryption of electronic communication, and permits senior police officers to place arbitrary restrictions on free movement.

The biggest division in the country is a linguistic one between the Sinhalese, who are mainly Buddhist, and the Tamils, who are mainly Hindu. Muslims and Christians can speak either or both languages. The various groups have a long history of conflict and it is difficult to create a simple narrative of villains and victims. Nevertheless, social media offered a way for the various communities to build bridges between one another.

By shutting down social media, leaving its citizens reliant on state messaging and a weak and beaten down form of journalism, the government now risks preventing Sri Lankans from finding out the truth about what is happening in their fragile and delicately balanced country. And that can only lead to suspicion and division, presumably the very thing the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday atrocity wanted.

Courtesy: The Conversation

The post Sri Lanka attacks: government’s social media ban may hide the truth about what is happening appeared first on SabrangIndia.