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by _zbkl 2481 days ago
Infoamtion is a necessity, but disinformation is a weapon.

I have lived in an Internet Shutdown that lasted for about a week. I was actually thankful for it. Don't get me wrong, It was inconvenient to say the least, but it probably saved thirty-odd lives.

You have to actually live in a tense environment (and be a minority) to understand how quickly misinformation and rumours can be spread that incite extreme violence and then counter-violence. Facebook/WhatsApp isn't very good at quickly taking down rumours, and people are easy to get charged when in an emotional state. The percentage of people who keep calm and let the situation die down is miniscule.

Reg. Kashmir, there have already been multiple instances fake videos/images shared by influential people, let alone everyday folks, within the last month (I'll put up links below later). You can only imagine the amount of inflammatory disinformation being shared by normal people. This stuff has already spread quicker than it is usually debunked, so the damage is already there.

1 comments

True. Shekhar Gupta explained in a recent video about how dangerous rumors and rumor-mongers can be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=wqzCU1Y36ww