WHEN FALSEHOODS BECOME POWER

RISING DISINFORMATION ACROSS SOCIAL MEDIA AND GEOPOLITICAL SPHERES IS RESHAPING PUBLIC PERCEPTION, CHALLENGING JOURNALISM, AND TESTING DEMOCRACY WORLDWIDE.

- By Kelum Bandara

In Ljubljana, Slovenia, experts at #Disinfo2025 convened to tackle the escalating spread of misinformation and disinformation in an age dominated by social media and AI-driven narratives. From geopolitical rivalries in Europe to election campaigns in Sri Lanka, the summit highlighted how falsehoods manipulate public perception, distort democratic processes, and demand urgent solutions through media literacy, fact-checking, and responsible journalism.

In an ever changing landscape of globalization, social media platforms dominate the spread of information. People across the globe and from all walks of life are flooded with information, misinformation, and disinformation.

People grapple with too much information. The danger lies with disinformation and misinformation. The world is confronted with disinformation affecting mankind.

At times, it is a well-orchestrated dissemination of disinformation, triggered by geopolitical rivalries. In Europe, countries rev up their engines to brace for the new scenario, eventually resulting in the change of the traditional role of journalism from informing the public with proper information to countering disinformation and misinformation.

In the flood of false narratives on security, political, cultural, economic, or social fronts, what is lost by people can be what they really need for their social upliftment. Driven by disinformation, they may choose leaders whom they don’t know.

They may avoid eating what is healthy. False narratives tend to spread much faster than true narratives, making the job harder for those, particularly professional journalists, involved in countering them. The advancement of AI technology has made matters worse. AI-driven tools are used in the propagation of data for false narratives.