Fake news

Political communication has a new tool. The new tool is: fake news. The medium: conventional as well as the social media. The users of this new tool are: the government, the opposition and the intelligence agencies. In Pakistan, the conflict among the three is at its peak – and we are in the midst of information warfare. The war is taking place on our TV channels, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, FireChat and Twitter.

This is about fake news and voter behaviour. This is about the power of digital communication. This is the intersection of technology, society and politics. This is about instant communication and political change. This is about technology and political manipulation. This is the intersection of communication, technology and politics. This is about the role of algorithms and political outcomes. This is about digital platforms and political change. Yes, fake news has real-world consequences.

The government spreads fake news to maintain the status quo. The opposition uses fake news to sway political opinion. And the intelligence agencies use fake news to grind their own axe.

We need to understand ‘computational propaganda’ and ‘autonomous agents’. This is politics of ‘algorithms and automation’. We need to understand that, “the bulk of digital communications are no longer between people but between devices, about people, over the Internet of things.” The government, the opposition and the intelligence agencies are using, “technological proxies in the form of proprietary algorithms and semi-automated social actors – political bots – in subtle attempts to manipulate public opinion.”

We need to understand that the government has specific goals. We need to understand that the opposition has specific goals. We need to understand that the intelligence agencies have specific goals. And, they are all using fake news that, “deliberately misrepresents symbols, appealing to emotions and prejudices and bypassing rational thought, to achieve a specific goal…”

The government, the opposition and the intelligence agencies have fielded software soldiers, hackers and computer scientists. These software battalions use “autonomous programmes ….as proxies for political actors, hoping to sway public opinion through the spread of propaganda and misinformation.” Imagine: there are some 7 billion people and around 10 billion mobile digital devices plus some 40 billion stationary devices. This is now about ‘algorithms, automation and social media’.

The government, the opposition and the intelligence agencies are using both established television anchors in-tandem with, “algorithmically driven computer programmes designed to do specific tasks online. Bots make up nearly 50 percent of all online traffic.” The government, the opposition and the intelligence agencies are using fake news for social control. We need to understand that ‘politicised algorithmic systems’ are being used to make us think in a particular way. We need to understand ‘bot-driven propaganda’. We need to understand that our ‘world is now occupied both by humans and bots.’ We need to understand that political bots are running political campaigns and trying to manipulate public opinion.

Yes, the fine line between journalism and fake news is getting blurred. We have always had fake medicines, fake milk, fake sugar and fake chillies. We survived. Welcome to fake news. Fake news has real-world consequences. We will survive but we need to understand as to what is going on.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com Twitter: @saleemfarrukh