Weapons of mass deception?

Image by Mike McKenzie via www.vpnsrus.com

Fake news. Alternative facts. Deception. Lies.

The media seems full of reportage on how social media carries content designed to deceive users. This recent article from the BBC News website calls into question some of the electoral results, including allegations of deliberate targeting of voters during the Brexit referendum. There does seem to b growing evidence that this may have been perpetrated, but in the midst of all the hyperbole and accusations, what role does social media actually play in the deception of the masses? How much of these problems are actually the fault of the social media, and to what extent are Facebook, Twitter and other popular platforms actually culpable?

My view echoes that of Marshall McLuhan who (allegedly) said: 'We shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us.' He probably borrowed this quote from Winston Churchill who said a similar thing about buildings. And he in turn probably borrowed it from someone else. Regardless of the provenance of the quote, it makes sense. Our tools are designed to perform tasks. And yet our inventive minds can concoct other uses which the designers did not have in mind when first they were created. A knife can be used to cut materials, or to maim and kill. It is completely dependent on its user.

Back in 1996 Richard Clark argued that media are mere vehicles that deliver content.  Robert Kozma disagreed, maintaining that media were far from neutral, because they had inherent affordances that users could perceive and exploit. In the end, both arguments held water. The use of the tool - or in this case, the social media - can be bent to the will of the user to achieve her/his purpose. Clearly, this debate is still relevant today.

Social media in itself is not inherently evil - it is simply a set of tools used to communicate, share and connect. What should be questioned is the minds behind the content that is being delivered. Ostensibly, this cannot be stopped, because those who wish to spread dissent, hate, deceit and rumour will do so regardless of the tools available to them. What schools and communities can do however, is provide better education for all users. Many schools are already teaching digital citizenship and safeguarding, warning children about the dangers of social media and smartphones and their need to be vigilant about who they contact and communicate with using these tools.

The next step will be to teach digital discernment - knowing the difference between fact and fiction, real news and fake news. This is a big challenge for all of us, because none of us are completely exempt from deception on the web.


Weapons of mass deception? by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.