In my weekly column for the Crawley Observer, I've written about social media spreading fake news, especially the sewer that is Elon Musk's Twitter or 'X' as he re-branded it. He is destroying that platform, with extremists given free reign to pump out lies, designed to indoctrinate and radicalise, all in the name of 'free speech'. We are seeing consequences in the real world and it's time to call out the purveyors of disinformation and misinformation. I feel strongly about this. The truth matters, whether or not it happens to support any given cause I may have. My column, which is limited to 350 words, is below.
"Access to information
has never been easier, but at the same time knowing what is real and what is
not, has become more complicated. I first heard the term “fake news” during the
2016 US presidential election, when it was claimed by the subsequent winner of
that election, to describe mainstream TV news channels that he didn’t like. The
irony is some of the alternative sources that Donald Trump promotes do exactly
that, publish fake information in order to manipulate the electorate.
There has
been a trend away from traditional news outlets for the consuming of news, with
a move to social media. This has led to a rise in misinformation (accidental
wrong information) and disinformation (intentional wrong information) being
circulated. Unscrupulous political extremists and countries with hostile
intentions to the west, push both, in order to sow discourse.
We’ve
recently seen consequences in the real world. After the appalling murderous knife
attack in Southport, a wholly incorrect name for the suspect spread rapidly on
Twitter, alongside false claims that he had recently come to the UK on a small
boat. The ‘source‘ for this was a bogus news website, which may have links to a
hostile foreign state. Despite these claims being quickly rebutted by
Merseyside Police, rioting broke out in Southport with the police saying many people
behind the disgraceful violence had been fired up by social media posts.
Politicians from
the respectable mainstream parties, including the Home Secretary, have called
out social media platforms for allowing misinformation to spread. I think we
need to go further. It is very clear that Twitter (rebranded as X) is out of
control, with mis/disinformation being allowed to flourish, as well as personal
abuse. The site’s owner is a big part of the problem and he seems to relish in
promoting the far-right and misinformation.
I believe it
would be good to get a mainstream political consensus to crack down on social
media mis/disinformation and force them to better police their platforms, if
they wish to freely operate here. In the meantime, I’d encourage financially
boycotting social media sites like ‘X’."
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