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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... >>

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