Basic HTML Version

|  | Table of Contents |  | View Full Version

Page 10 - The Indian EYE 022026
P. 10

    OPINION                                                            FEBRUARY 20, 2026       |  The Indian Eye 10

                                   ‘Anti-Social Media’:

             The Changing Tech of Terror

             According to a 2018 MIT Sloan study, “false rumours spread faster and wider than true information, which

               supports the adage that ‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still putting on its shoes’”

                                                Despite best efforts to curb misuse, we often find that even popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter struggle to prevent
                                                                           radicals from disseminating their messages (Courtesy: IDSA)

                                              apps intentionally design provocative  mous phrase “The Medium is the   er and wider than true information,
                                              hashtags to spur prolonged, polaris-  Message” renders highly interactive   which supports the adage that ‘A
                                              ing debates and profit from them.  social media platforms a real-time   lie can travel halfway around the
                                                  By providing content creators  hazard to public safety and security,   world  while  truth  is  still putting  on
                                              with anonymity and by stripping cen-  particularly in relation to sensitive so-  its shoes’”. Thus, the study states that
                                              sorship regulations, the steady lives-  cietal issues.              falsehoods are 70 per cent more like-
                                              treaming of visceral online responses   In an August 2019 internal memo   ly to be retweeted than the truth, and
                                              has become difficult to regulate, giv-  (leaked in 2021), a Facebook staffer   reach their first 1,500 people six times
                      ADIL RASHEED            en the speed at which messages are   admitted that “the mechanics of our   faster. This effect is more pronounced
                                              communicated and exchanged.       platforms are  not neutral”  and con-  for political news and for content tar-
                  he limited span of attention                                  cluded that, to maximise profits, opti-  geting particular races, nationalities,
                  of  today’s  dopamine-fed  and   Medium is the Message        misation for engagement is necessary.   or religions.
            Tadrenaline-rushed social me-         In fact, the business models of  To increase engagement, hate and mis-  Thus, before examining the dam-
            dia junkies, be they on TikTok, X,   many  social  media  platforms  are  information become profitable. Thus,   age caused by encrypted social media
            YouTube Shorts or Instagram posts,   based on engagement algorithms,  the  memo  states:  “The  more  incen-  platforms in online radicalisation, one
            often bypasses the cortex of cerebral   hashtags and rabbit holes that spur  diary the material, the more it keeps   must not overlook mainstream social
            consciousness and directly targets the   further online debate and thereby  users engaged (and) the more it is   media apps, which arguably serve as
            pre-cognitive instinctual and visceral   increase advertising revenue. In the  boosted by the algorithm.” Although,   the first layer for the dissemination of
            seat of the collective unconscious.  words of Carlos Diaz Ruiz, “Incen-  Facebook has taken commendable   extremist content.
                Thus, a serious debate is cur-  diary, shocking content – whether it  steps to prevent incendiary material
            rently raging over whether anti-so-  is true or not – is an easy way to get  from appearing on its platforms, the   The Anti-Social Media
            cial elements  or violent  extremists   our attention, which means advertis-  complexities  of  regulating  problem-  In the wake of the white noise
            exploit social media platforms for   ers can end up funding fake news and  atic content appear to be increasing.  generated by mainstream social me-
            their insidious purposes, or whether   hate speech.”                    According to a 2018 MIT Sloan   dia channels and apps, a new trend
            most social media outlets and their   Thus, Marshall McLuhan’s fa-  study, “false rumours spread fast-       Continued on next page... >>

                                                                   www.TheIndianEYE.com

| 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 |