WHAT CAN USERS DO?
Prof Saifuddin mentioned there’s an onus on social media customers to take steps to confirm the knowledge they’re consuming on such platforms.
“First, confirm the credibility of sources and consider the content material with a rational thoughts. Search for logic within the content material, establish the deceptive narratives and query if there generally is a hidden propaganda behind,” he mentioned.
“Second, report suspected misinformation. For those who suspect that the knowledge just isn’t true, report it. Social media platforms will assessment the request and if the knowledge is true, they may let the content material keep and so there isn’t any hurt finished.
“Lastly, and maybe crucial step, we should recognise and acknowledge our personal biases earlier than we start to judge or share the content material with our family and friends.”
CHALLENGES IN REGULATION
Specialists say there are a number of challenges in addressing the misinformation phenomenon on social media platforms.
For one, real-time fact-checking and efforts to appropriate or debunk pretend data are tough as they unfold so quickly.
Savvy customers have additionally learnt to bypass content material moderation filters, corresponding to by changing flagged key phrases.
Prof Saifuddin mentioned governments want to use regulatory pressures as social media platforms, being profit-driven enterprise entities, are unlikely to prioritise consumer security and content material accuracy if left to their very own gadgets.
“Higher rules will solely be applied by means of regulatory pressures, by means of authorities, governments and third events,” he mentioned.
“By themselves, social media corporations will solely care about markets the place their enterprise might be hit. They could ignore different contexts as a result of they don’t matter.”
It is necessary for social media platforms to have higher methods in labelling misinformation and disinformation, and limiting the propagation of false materials which have already scaled, he added.
Dr Boichak mentioned the implementation of legal guidelines surrounding social media platforms and the content material they permit is essential within the age of technological advances and elevated dependence on on-line data.
“This can have more and more vital implications on our understanding of wars and on our capability to take part in among the discourse round them,” she mentioned. “(This will even have an effect on) the flexibility of the nefarious actors to govern among the discourse surrounding these occasions.”