ARGUMENT: Countering DisinformationHow to Support a Globally Connected Counter-Disinformation Network
From undermining democracy to inciting genocide, the global dangers of disinformation on social media are now well known. Kevin Sheives writes that despite countless calls for better legal regulation or intensified content moderation, the efforts of governments and social media companies to combat this threat have proven either woefully inadequate or dangerous to democratic practice. “Civil society, not governments or social media companies, can best diminish disinformation,” he writes.
From undermining democracy to inciting genocide, the global dangers of disinformation on social media are now well known. Kevin Sheives writes in War on the Rocks that despite countless calls for better legal regulation or intensified content moderation, the efforts of governments and social media companies to combat this threat have proven either woefully inadequate or dangerous to democratic practice.
He adds:
The problem is that we have been looking for the solution in the wrong place. Civil society, not governments or social media companies, can best diminish disinformation. But these civil society organizations need equipping, and their tools need sharpening. A powerful, networked disinformation threat should be met with a powerful, networked response. This means more data access, more training, and a more entrepreneurial approach to support groups around the world that are already on the front lines. By providing this support, ideally in a more coordinated fashion, donors and research organizations can help make these groups even more powerful in their response.
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The global campaign against disinformation should have civil society at its core. Modern, entrepreneurial, and collaborative civil society organizations have proven more effective and sustainable than other alternatives in serving as global watchdogs and countering the influence of authoritarians and hate speech. Because of their efforts, a new global vision for fighting disinformation is emerging: a loosely connected web of hyper-local organizations that constantly learn from one another, are equipped with response tools by funders and research organizations, and enjoy genuine access to and power within social media platforms and regulatory bodies.
Civil society organizations designed to counter social media disinformation are sprouting up nearly everywhere in the world, even amid threats of increasingly closed or illiberal societies and authoritarian pressures. One organization has counted 117 different types of interventions operating just in Europe and Eurasia. A second research project catalogued more than 280 different types of interventions in over 80 countries, while yet another was able to survey 53 organizations (but acknowledged there was a much larger field). The National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies produced research that identified 175 counter-disinformation organizations. New organizations are being founded at a rapid pace, and existing foundations and development organizations are focusing more on these information space threats. The difficulty of precisely mapping the field shows just how dynamic it is.
He concludes:
The solution to disinformation is not to substitute government power for that of tech giants, or to leave it to the tech giants in the hope their platforms don’t trample the truth. Regulating speech and online expression presents many dangers to democratic ideals and freedom of expression. The COVID-19 pandemic and the global acceleration of illiberalism have resulted in a wave of government censorship, borne of a combination of authoritarian leanings and government frustration with rampant online disinformation. Civil society can step into this breach in effective ways, both to warn governments of the perils of such laws and to serve as a check on the power of social media firms. But this vision for a powerful, networked response to meet the global disinformation challenge will fail if the organizations at the front lines are not equipped with the right tools.
