The Power of Propaganda

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what is not true; the other is to refuse to accept what is true”.

Soren Kierkegaard

As social media plays a greater role in our lives, what could be called the power of propaganda is growing. The result is the propagation of all sorts of unedited news sources many of which deliver fake news to an unsuspecting and easily manipulable public.

This new form of media has led to two results. On the one hand, it has enabled leaders who challenge traditional precepts of liberal democracy, in those countries where it exists, while it has also led to stringent controls over social media in countries governed by autocrats or dictators.

Social media has amplified the ability of charlatans to reach a greater audience all while giving a degree of legitimacy to the lies that they propagate. The average citizen has neither the time nor the inclination to investigate every lie that appears on-line. In our era of instant gratification, many unwittingly accept at face value anything that they see on-line. 

Absent the application of time to check sources and alternate media, we can quickly fall into the trap of conflating truth with fiction and giving each equal weight.

The competition to be the first to break news drives many media today to encourage their journalists to set aside the traditional rule of thumb of two independent and verifiable sources for each report. Some media would rather go with the story and apologize later rather than appear to miss out being the first to report and compromise their medium’s ratings – the driving force behind the advertising dollars that sustain most media outlets.

All of this has an impact on governing. Many leaders are now faced with having to make instant decisions on complex issues since the instant global availability of information leaves them with little or no time for the reflection and consultations. Moreover, many voters have little time to investigate and evaluate all the information that they receive in order to evaluate whether what they are hearing, or reading is truthful and accurate. As Winston Churchill once noted, lies are halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

The ongoing COVID pandemic has seen so many cases of disinformation, confusion and outright lies by both credible sources as well as by crackpots that many now doubt the science behind the proper management of this global crisis. This has empowered leaders who question science for their own political gain and who question factual scientific information. There is nothing wrong with questioning science, in fact that is the purpose of science, to question things and to seek answers. That said, while it may be argued that the scientific recommendations changed as more knowledge became known, this is far different from science being wrong.

Yet experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have been vilified while charlatans like the anti-vaxers are lauded for their leadership by some Americans. The same is happening elsewhere.

Another glaring example of this syndrome is the invasion of Ukraine where Russian propaganda aims to convince international audiences and Russian citizens about the causes for the invasion. This includes wild claims that the Ukrainians were run by have a Nazi regime and that they attacked Russia. 

Finally, Russian digital interference in recent elections in the West may well have influenced many Americans to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and many Brits to vote for Brexit.  

The Chinese have taken things one step further. Their government has banned global social media from its market. It has preferred to create its own Chinese variation of Facebook and Twitter to meet demand for internal connectivity yet control the content in order to ensure that national and international anti-regime messages are blocked.

Can anything be done?

Not easily.

We live in the 21st century with the major challenges that a globalized communications system implies.

Can we trust governments to do anything about this, when many legislators don’t understand the challenges that global social media platforms pose for national governments; when we have a legal system that cannot deal with transnational phenomena like fake news on global platforms, and where many of the main beneficiaries of lying and fake news on social media platforms are the very politicians whom we would task with eliminating this curse.

This is a global phenomenon and requires a global solution.

Until governments can come together to create laws with the teeth to prosecute the spreading of lies and hate speech, and until a cadre of experts emerges in whom we can trust to adjudicate them, we will still be caught in a 20th century box.

We not only have to think outside of that box but create a 21st century box that can deal effectively with the challenges of governing transnational social media platforms. 

A difficult task indeed.

[email protected]

Keep reading: Farewell, Mr. Trudeau?

Edición: Laura Espejo