Disrupted digital agora

As someone who has spent more than two decades in the communications field, | have observed the evolution of information from the editorially mediated systems of the pre-digital era to the algorithm-driven dynamics that define today’s media landscape. This experience has provided a rare, long-view perspective on how content is created, how content is used and virally amplified across global platforms. Having witnessed the digital promise of transparency and connection transform into a crisis of credibility, this series seeks to examine the accelerating erosion of trust that now defines the modern digital public square.

- By Ashan Kumar

THE digital age began with a bold promise, that instantaneous, borderless communication would deepen understanding and empower democracy. Social media was envisioned as the new public square, an open agora for ideas. But instead of enlightenment, it has produced an era of distortion.

Today’s social platforms have become the battlegrounds of an invisible war: the “Infodemic” a relentless flood of falsehoods that undermines truth, institutions, and trust. What began as a technological revolution has evolved into an existential crisis.

Algorithms once celebrated for personalising content now prioritise provocation over truth. The result is a systemic bias toward outrage, emotional manipulation, and misinformation, a distortion so profound that it now challenges the foundations of democracy, business credibility, and societal cohesion.

The economics of attention have become the economics of deception. Social media thrives on engagement and not accuracy. Algorithms reward virality, not veracity. Content that provokes anger or tribal affirmation travels farther and faster than fact-based discourse.

This feedback loop has blurred the line between misinformation (unintentional error) and disinformation (intentional deceit). Both spread with equal efficiency —and equal damage.

Enter Generative AI, which compounds the crisis. Deepfakes and Al-generated narratives make the origins of content nearly impossible for the average user to authenticate. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report has repeatedly ranked misinformation and disinformation among the world’s top threats, not as a communications issue, but as a systemic risk to public health, democracy, and stability.

For communicators and reputation strategists, the disinformation age has rewritten the rules.