Disinformation may originate from totalitarian governments, but it succeeds where there is no leadership.
I customarily associate disinformation, or campaigns of propaganda, with totalitarian regimes like Fidel Castro’s, Mao Tse Tung’s or Francisco Franco’s government.
The rise of disinformation in the United States under President Trump was initially due to his hands-off, permissive approach to disinformation.
According to Alina Bârgăoanu and Loredana Radu, the proliferation of false news indicates a transition to a G-Zero world (a term coined by Ian Bremmer) in which there is a vacuum of global governance.
Situating their fact-checking in Romania, these writers focus on the pandemic conspiracies that have the potentially dangerous effect of dividing people through fear-based narratives. Examples from Romania that the writers include: “the virus is a ‘bioweapon for economic purposes'” or ” the virus is a ‘bioweapon against the ageing population'” or “Coronavirus is a bioweapon developed in China to dominate the world.”
Bârgăoanu and Radu cite the failure of leaders to respond meaningfully to acts of disinformation. They expand this argument to state that the major actors, those leaders who might have been able to stop disinformation, have retreated leaving behind a void. This void has been filled by state and non-state actors pushing their own agenda worsening the proliferation of disinformation and its effects.
We are teetering on the brink of the end of reality, where we cannot tell what is real from what is fake.
Sinan Aral, Massachussets Institute of Technology, as stated in his 2020 TED Talk
I believe that the vacuum of leadership created during Trump’s presidency was the breeding ground for disinformation by groups, including foreign entities seeking to polarize American society.
At the end of his presidency, Trump took a hands-on role to disinform the American public and to create social discord about national narratives.
Writers for the Soufan Center allege that a vacuum of leadership in the United States led to insurrection of the nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021. Published two days after the attack on the Capitol, this intelligence briefing explains that Trump’s incendiary messages on Facebook and Twitter on and before January 6 incited the Capitol riot.
This week, the Soufan Center, founded by former FBI Special Agent Ali Soufan, has published that QAnon adherents still pose a national security threat according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. According to this April 20 briefing, foreign actors have amplified the effect of the QAnon conspiracy theories: “China closed the gap on Russia by becoming more active in spreading QAnon-related content and, in 2021, surpassed the Russian Federation.”
From a national security point of view, I argue that we if we do not combat disinformation, and reassert leadership, we will be on the brink of civil war in the United States.
Nationalism means war.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France, as quoted by Christiane Amanpour in her 2017 Ted Interview
There are many signs that President Biden’s primary goal is to restore the people’s trust in the presidency.
Just weeks after his November 2020 election, President-Elect Biden addressed the nation to reassure Americans. As quoted by The Los Angeles Times, Biden said that Americans deserve “to always hear the truth” from the president. Gradually, Biden has restored the idea that the president’s job is to tell the truth. He has sought to unite the country around the same set of factual truths regarding the pandemic and other global crises.
How to stop disinformation and avert polarization.
In her 2017 TED Interview, the journalist, Christiane Amanpour, alluding to Trump, gives the example that if the President of the United States accuses you of fake news not only is your credibility questioned as a journalist, the public itself begins to doubt the veracity of journalistic media.
Fortunately, Sinan Aral, offers workable solutions in his 2020 TED Talk, How We Can Protect Truth in the Age of Misinformation.
While Aral cites challenges to each recommendation he makes, I support a combined approach:
- Require labeling of all information published on the web including social media platforms.
- Employ machine learning to regulate adherence to the labeling requirement.
We need a filter-the-crap moral compass algorithm
Christiane Amanpour, Political Journalist, her quote as summarized by her interviewer in her 2017 Ted Interview
