State-Sponsored Lies: Disinformation in the Digital World
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, banned Russian state-sponsored media outlet Russia Today (RT) from its platforms on Monday, September 16. (Wikimedia Commons)
Most people think of fake news as the work of basement-dwelling internet trolls or radical conspiracy theorists, but a lot of false information actually originates from well-coordinated, state-sponsored campaigns. From Russia spreading fake reports about Western COVID-19 vaccines to China pushing unsubstantiated rumors of U.S.-backed biowarfare labs in Ukraine, nations use blatant disinformation to undermine foreign adversaries, alter global public opinion, and gain influence across the world.
States lying on the international stage is not new. For example, the Saudi government consistently denied its involvement in the killing of Saudi-critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The U.S. government pushed false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003. However, the scale and sophistication of these lies have reached new heights in the social media era.
In a landscape of virality and sensationalism, it is becoming harder to distinguish lies from the truth. U.S. intelligence has uncovered Russian state-sponsored bot running thousands of fake social media profiles, impersonating regular Western citizens to spew pro-Russian propaganda. All the while, state news outlets such as RT publish misleading articles online about the war in Ukraine. These inflammatory outbursts generate high levels of engagement, leading online platforms to spread disinformation to even more viewers based on their algorithms.
While the uncovering of these lies may tank a country’s international popularity—Russia currently possesses a disapproval rating of 84 percent among Americans, in part due to their disinformation campaigns—governments across the world continue to engage in disinformation because the practice remains politically advantageous.
Political disinformation campaigns have emerged in at least 70 countries since 2016, with governments leveraging their power over the media to manipulate broadcasts both domestically and internationally. Lies have become so commonplace that the general public no longer becomes incensed when authoritative sources debunk them—fake news has become a fact of life. This increasing political apathy has allowed politicians and rulers to get away with much more divisive and factually dubious rhetoric, carving out the unstable international political landscape we face today.
The solutions to combating disinformation are as complex as the issue itself. There are over 100 anti-misinformation laws and campaigns in effect around the world, though their legitimacy and effectiveness remain contested. In Ukraine, the “How Not to Become a Vegetable” campaign has prepared 44,000 teachers on how to instruct information literacy and created almost six million minutes of educational material online to help Ukranians recognize fake news.
In France, judges may arbitrarily order the immediate removal of what they rule to be fake news on social media during election periods, a move that some critics warn could curb free speech. Countries such as Burkina Faso and Turkey have also passed laws to outlaw “false and provocative” posts in social media. These laws exist to fight disinformation, but autocratic leaders can also use them to target political opponents. There is clearly a fine line between banning disinformation and excessive censorship; legislating truth is anything but simple
While the truth has always been elusive in international affairs, advanced technology such as bots make this issue much more crucial in the current period of uncertainty. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of governments and individuals to champion truth in an increasingly polarized world. Only by cultivating a collective commitment to factual integrity can we hope to navigate the murky waters of disinformation and ensure that facts, not falsehoods, dictate the future of global affairs.