Prof Badar Shahzad
Social media helps people to isolate themselves in ideological niches by seeking
and consuming only information consistent with their views. The internet helps
eliminate the barriers of distance and creates a sense of community beyond
borders. Acts of terror are promoted and shared and watched in real time like
the mosque shooting in Christchurch which was live-streamed on Facebook. Online
video games are used to entice and indoctrinate young players to hate ethnic
minorities. The games are modified versions of classic videogames in which the
original enemies were replaced with religious, racial and ethnic minorities.
There are plenty of historical evidences implicating the traditional media for
acting as a propaganda tool for hatred leading to ethnic rifts and producing
turbulence in society. Printing technology gave rumours a legitimacy. Inthe
16thcentury Italy,rumourabout the Jewish people drinking children’s blood
circulated on printed pamphlets. Today, those rumours are considered the
precursor to anti-Semitism in the world. Der Stürmer, a weekly tabloid, was
found to have “injected into the minds of thousands of Germans a poison that
caused them to support the National Socialist policy of Jewish persecution and
extermination”. Like Der Stumer, Kangura, a Rwandan tabloid, spewed out hate and
fabricated stories against the Tutsis preparing the population mentally for
killing them.
Broadcast technologies have also been misused to spread hate, which is most
visibly in Rwanda where the majority Hutus massacred the minority Tutsis. Social
media also played a dirty role in Rohingya ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The UN
put blame on Facebook for playing a role in spreading hate speech amid the
mounting Rohingya crisis. MarzukiDarusman, who led the UN Fact-Finding Mission,
stated that social media played a determining role in the crisis.
Digitization of “text and images”increasestheir availability, makes themmore
toxic, more lethal and their impact on society and nations more profound than
the previous print versions.The conversion of ink into hypertext has increased
violent crimes, hate speeches and propaganda,and enabled the extremists to
disseminate it much effectively to its audience. Shrinking of time and space has
bestowed upon the text and images the magic power eliciting a massive public
reaction and social impact. The massacre and promotion of hate crimes against
Muslims in Manymar, Gujarat,Delhi, andthe street protests in response to George
Floyd’s killing by a police cop in USA is testimony to the fact that media is a
powerful mover and shaker of society – a double edged sword.
Metamorphosis of the traditional media into different types of social media
platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, YouTube, Periscope,
Vimeo)has increasedthe flow of informationmaking it easier for extremists and
policymakers to influence and radicalize the youth and sections of society by
manifolds. By October 2020, 4.59 billion people had access tointernet. With zero
or few gatekeepers the flooding of hypertext was almost uncontrollable. With the
introduction of 5G, a new dimension hasbeen opened;5G can elevate data speed by
up to 100 times and reduce latency from 20 milliseconds to one millisecond. User
is now able to download entire season of a TV series in less than a minute.
The terrorist/ extremist organizations are exploiting media technologies for
radicalizing populations to achieve their ends. This has become a disturbing
phenomenon in the crisis situations, war zones and peace times. Gabriel Weismann
from the University of Haifastates,“Nearly 90% of organized terror activities on
internet takes place via social media. Terror groups use social media to spread
messages, recruit members and gather intelligence.” Similarly, fake or distorted
news is easy and cheap to produce/ disseminate on social media.Boutros-Ghali was
once quoted as complaining that “CNN is the 16th member of UN SC”.
Policymakersprovide a more complex view of the CNN effect. Colin Powell
said,“Live TV coverage doesn’t change the policy, but it does create environment
in which policy is made”.The body of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee,
lying face down on a beach in Turkey,changed the entire media debate. Likewise,
Rwandan cultural anthropologist Charles Mironkoanalyzedthe confessions of 100
genocide perpetrators. His work confirms that hate messages had an effect on the
dehumanization of population that was subject to persistent slander.
Indian media in Gujarat printed fake news like“Khoon Ka BadlaKhoon” (Avenge
Blood with Blood) to provoke, communalize and terrorize people resulting in the
massacre of Muslims.Sandesh published fabricated reports before the killings,
promoting violent Hindutva policies.Genocide Watch issued genocide alerts for
Muslims in Kashmir and Assam. Anti-Muslim venom on Indian social media indicates
a serious move by RSS to instigate Hindus against Muslims. “Preparation for
genocide is definitely underway in India…next stage is extermination that’s what
we call a genocide”, said Prof Gregory Stanton, the author of The 10 Stages of
Genocide. EU Disinfo Lab’s recent report reveals how India since decades has
been engaged in spreading fake or distorted news from the soil of EU, using
names of nonexistent individuals and some Pakistani figures. This report should
have created a storm in the local and international media, but, again, because
of effectiveness of Indian media’s propaganda brigade, Pakistani print and
electronic media as well as its foreign office have failed to exploit this
heinous crime by Indians agencies. The realization on part of Pakistan’s
security establishment, as Gen Bajwa had mentioned many a time, about the hybrid
war is a good omen and hopefully they are doing their utmost to thwart and
frustrate such kind of onslaught.
At the same time there is a need to ask social media to have a self-check, too.
The World Economic Forum, in 2014, called misinformation one of the 10 greatest
perils confronting the society. “It sows the seeds of hate, waters them and
harvests them”. Social mediahas become the most powerful news
disseminators.Technology serves not only to amplify disinformation and hate but
also creates the scope for its automated spread. This sort of tech has no use
for borders. So, people and machines in Ukraine can influence public opinion in
USA. Russian agencies can interfere with the US electoral process. The
CambridgeAnalytica scandal shows us how easy it was to manufacture biased info
and target it to specific population groups to help Trump win the election.
WHO, citing 50 yearsofresearchonimitation,has posted media guidelines on
reporting suicides to prevent imitational suicides.The guidelines include
suggestions such as not sensationalizing suicide (e.g. suggesting an
“epidemic”), avoiding prominent headlines, not repeating the story too
frequently, not providing step-by-step descriptions of methods, limiting use of
photographs and videos, etc. Reacting to such pressures Facebook, Reddit,
Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube have issued a joint statement
to check misinformation. The rules will also ban tweets in which people play
armchair doctor and make claims like, “If you have a wet cough, it’s not
coronavirus, but a dry cough is.” Social media played a vital role in
politicizing Covid-19 and generated fake cures or myths about it. In India,
Muslims were accused of Corona Jihad spreading the virus to Hindu population.
Indians blamed Pakistanis for sending Corona terrorists for infecting Hindus.
Muslims were burnt alive or lynched to death due to propaganda on Indian media
which urged Hindus to boycott Muslim merchandise.
Accuracy and elimination of fake news/propaganda content is critical for growth
and ensuring media credibility and harmony in society. To ensure
credibility,Facebook has decided to have stringent rules to check and identify
harmful misinformation in collaboration with International Fact-Checking Network
(IFCN). Twitter is labeling and issuing warnings for tweets that violate its
policy. CrowdTangle is a public insights tool from Facebook that makes it easy
to follow, analyze, and report on what’s happening across social media.
(The author is visiting lecturer at Bahria University)