PerspectiveThe Complicated Truth of Countering Disinformation

In 2017, Myanmar’s military led a protracted propaganda campaign that resulted in mass murder. Over 25,000 of the country’s Rohingya people were raped or killed, while over 700,000 more were forced to flee. Though divisions between Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and Muslim Rohingya minority have existed for over half a century, social media platforms — notably Facebook — amplified the disinformation and propaganda efforts that ended in horrific violence and a refugee crisis.

Christina Nemr and Will Gangware write in War in the Rocks that focusing exclusively on Facebook’s role in the crisis, however, misses the point. The truth is more complicated — social media’s unprecedented ability to spread disinformation succeeds in part because of vulnerabilities in the way people process and evaluate information. In an information environment characterized by an oversaturation of content and algorithms designed to increase views and shares, narratives (true or not) can quickly go viral by appealing to our biases. This new, decentralized world of content creation and consumption is ripe for exploitation by nefarious actors who seek to spread doubt and untruths.

“To counter modern disinformation, then, we cannot focus solely on social media platforms or current technologies — we should also understand the psychological factors that underpin our identities and perceptions of the truth,” Nemr and Gangware write: “Acknowledging the ways in which people are vulnerable to biased narratives is a key part of developing necessary multi-dimensional responses.”

They conclude:

There are two constants in this complex information environment: the use of propaganda and disinformation as tools for influence and obfuscation, and the underlying psychological factors that make humans vulnerable to such narratives. What is subject to change, however, are the technologies by which such content is created and spread.

Given these factors, it is important not to overstate the impact of technology, but rather to understand and address the interwoven complexities disinformation poses. In the near term, social media platforms are best positioned to lead counter-disinformation efforts, and these efforts should be made as transparent as possible in collaboration with government and other partners. However, all stakeholders should approach it as the multi-dimensional problem that it is, contending honestly with the cognitive limitations of people’s information intake and the ambiguous nature of what constitutes disinformation. Only then will we craft effective policies, regardless of the technologies involved.