Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
objective “fact of the matter” that we
some
all agree upon?
could
The concept of truth has been the victim
…
massive cyber-attacks in recent decades,
of
it has not yet recovered. The most
and
attack has come from social media,
recent
has turned the internet into one great
which
cauldron of opinions, most of them
seething
in which every kind of malice
anonymous,
fantasy swamps the still small voice of
and
terms: FT
Search
WhatsApp
India
is the echo chamber of all
“WhatsApp
lies, fakes and crap in India,
unmitigated
a toxic cesspool,” says Palanivel
it’s
an elected ofÀcial and head
Thiagarajan,
the IT department of DMK, a regional
of
in the state of Tamil Nadu … .
party
Wardle, a research fellow at
Claire
University and co-founder of
Harvard
Draft, a non-proÀt group addressing
First
on social media, says
misinformation
took off with the explosion
WhatsApp
smartphone users in countries such
of
Brazil, Nigeria and India, where
as
has become “a primary source of
it
“These questions about
information”.
role in the spread of misinformation
its
not just to do with elections,” she
are
“It’s about WhatsApp’s role in
says.
full stop.” Its encryption
societies,
… has made it more vulnerable
system
misuse, especially in elections, say
to
who argue it has become a
critics,
for spreading campaign-related
platform
misinformation.
have yet to get used to this, and to the
We
social media has done to the practice
damage
is an opinion-forming and opinionmanipulating
Politics
art. However much people
be inuenced by slick advertising,
can
promises and intoxicating
mendacious
they are inuenced by these
slogans,
only because the idea of truth lurks
things
risk came to a head in Brazil last
This
in what became known as the
year,
“WhatsApp election”. With 120m
Àrst
users in a country of over
WhatsApp
the platform was Áooded ahead
211m,
the October vote with false rumours,
of
photographs and audio hoaxes
doctored
Researchers studying 100,000 images
…
in 347 groups found that
circulating
8 per cent were “fully truthful”.
only
was huge in Brazil. It
“Misinformation
an election plagued with fake news
was
left behind a country split in half by
that
says Fabrício Benevenuto at the
hatred,”
University of Minas Gerais and
Federal
researcher on the impact of the social
a
network. “The political discussion
media
up being reduced to a meme.”
ended
has become the platform
WhatsApp
choice for politicians because of
of
massive reach that goes beyond a
its
loyal voter base, but also because
party’s
the lack of gatekeepers. Messages
of
through the system have no
forwarded
about where they originate, but
context
from the trust of coming from a
beneÀt
groups are considered the
“WhatsApp
dangerous,” says SY Quraishi,
most
former election commissioner.
India’s
disastrous potential of this media
“The
of rational argument. …
humanity and truth. …
in the background of their
somewhere
In the end we all respond to
consciousness.
inner “reality principle”, and will amend
an
belief when its refutation is staring us in
any
the face. (The Spectator 2017)
Source
2: “India: The WhatsApp
election” (Financial Times, 4 May 2019)
election
contact.
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