The perilous age of disinformation

The most serious threat that the world faces now are not a war, a nuclear catastrophe or an economic crisis, but disinformation, according to the Global Risk Report 2024, published by the World Economic Forum, Davos. The report is based on the opinion of over 1,400 experts and has assessed the world’s vulnerability to threats in various fields. It presents an outlook of concern for the future. Climate change has been known as a serious risk, but ranking misinformation and disinformation along with it is to be taken particular note of. Misinformation is wrong information and disinformation is deliberately falsified information. Technology-driven false information has always been a serious threat to societies, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) would now be deployed to amplify and aggravate its impact. Everything can be misrepresented and falsified and presented with such credibility that people will not be able to distinguish truth from falsehood.

The report says disinformation and climate change can trigger a global crisis in the next two years. It mentions disinformation as a matter of special concern this year because this is the biggest election year in history, with major countries from the US to the EU to India going to the polls, involving billions of people. Disinformation would play a major role in campaigns influencing people’s choices and can undermine the legitimacy of elected governments. “Resulting unrest could range from violent protests and hate crimes to civil confrontation and terrorism,” says the report. In the short term, it has identified societal polarisation, cyber insecurity and interstate armed conflict as threats, after climate change and disinformation. Over the longer term of a decade, the report forecasts, apart from climate disasters and disinformation, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and natural resource shortages as serious problems. It expects a multipolar or fragmented world order to emerge "in which middle and great powers contest, set and enforce regional rules and norms.” 

The report is of special significance for India because, according to it, the risk of disinformation is the highest in India among all the countries. The country will soon enter the campaign period for the Lok Sabha elections, where there will be no-holds-barred use of fake news, and disinformation. Parties will deploy all their resources to promote themselves and to defame rivals. All social media platforms will be used for the purpose. The government can use the laws and the power at its disposal to control the media and regulate the nature and flow of information. This can also amount to disinformation. The public needs to be vigilant about all this. Disinformation can have an unhealthy impact on areas other than politics, too. It can create social strife and economic problems.