Online spread of disinformation tearing societies apart: Experts

Platforms like X designed to bring people together, but the opposite is happening

- Arvind Jayaram

The recent riots in Britain over the stabbing deaths of three young girls showed the speed and unpredictability of real-world consequences when malevolent political agendas are weaponised and amplified on social media by groups with vested interests, say experts.

Social media platforms like X and Facebook were created with the idea of bringing people closer together, but are instead destroying social cohesion through misinformation and disinformation online, the experts said.

"With the new social media, we are going to see maybe a revival of the clash of civilisations," NUS Business School professor of strategy and policy Lawrence Loh told The Straits Times.

"This is a very established notion. But now, given the speed, the sensitivity of many of the comments which could be transmitted and often misinterpreted, I can say we are in a very precarious situation.

"Societies, communities are standing on a very delicate tightrope, and social media has the ability to tilt the balance instantaneously, sometimes by providing misinformation which can be taken as the truth. It just spirals out of control, it snowballs," said Prof Loh, who is also director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at NUS Business School.

Dr Joel Ng, research fellow and deputy head of the Centre for Multilateralism Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that social media algorithms corral people into echo chambers that magnify occasional incidents as if they are ubiquitous.

This has led some to embrace faraway causes as their own, and then go on to commit extremist acts.

Dr Ng indicated that even the way in which social media platforms presented conflicts was problematic because of what he termed their "bite-sized content".

Short posts or videos were designed for entertainment - not education but they have become the primary way that many digest content, including the news.