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Democracy vs. Disinformation

Mar 11, 2019 Ana Palacio

Efforts to combat disinformation in the West have so far focused on tactical approaches that target the "supply side" of the problem. To succeed, they must be accompanied by efforts that tackle the demand side of the problem: the factors that make liberal democratic societies today so susceptible to manipulation.

MADRID – These are difficult days for liberal democracy. But of all the threats that have arisen in recent years – populism, nationalism, illiberalism – one stands out as a key enabler of the rest: the proliferation and weaponization of disinformation.

The threat is not a new one. Governments, lobby groups, and other interests have long relied on disinformation as a tool of manipulation and control.

What is new is the ease with which disinformation can be produced and disseminated. Advances in technology allow for the increasingly seamless manipulation or fabrication of video and audio, while the pervasiveness of social media enables false information to be rapidly amplified among receptive audiences.

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Emmanuel Macron
To commemorate its founding 25 years ago, PS is republishing a selection of commentaries written since 1994.

In the following commentary, Emmanuel Macron called on EU citizens to focus on three goals ahead of the critical European Parliament election in May 2019.

Comments From: Chris Patten, Diane Coyle, Clemens Fuest, Stefan Gerlach, Anatole Kaletsky, Christopher Smart, Ana Palacio, Mark Leonard, Edoardo Campanella, Lucrezia Reichlin, Daniel Gros, Éloi Laurent, Jacek Rostowski, Helmut Anheier, Erik Berglöf, Carl Bildt, Gene Frieda.
calls on EU citizens to focus on three goals ahead of the critical European Parliament election in May.

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j. von Hettlingen Mar 12, 2019

Ana Palacio says fighting disinformation in the West requires more than just targeting the "supply side" of the problem. The reason why the “War on Drugs” failed so badly, is because it had neglected the “demand side of the problem.” It is equally important to address the vulnerability a liberal democratic society faces, whose openness makes it “susceptible to manipulation” and ideological control, thanks to social media.
Democracy is at risk when “falsehoods” erode a public discourse and the spread of disinformation succeeds in confusing, demoralising and dividing the citizens. . The so-called “truth decay” happens when actual facts and expertise are being ridiculed and rejected. This development is worrisome, because it undermines the “functioning of democratic systems, which depend on the electorate’s ability to make informed decisions.”
The author says the West has recognised the “scale” of the threat after the 2016 Brexit referendum and US presidential election. The EU began to realise how disinformation could “reshape” politics detrimental to a country’s national interests. European leaders got their act together to counter meddling by a hostile foreign power during the 2017 presidential election in France and the “illegal” referendum on Catalan independence in Spain.
The EU has launched a “war against disinformation” by Russia in an attempt to protect the upcoming European parliament elections. The measures aim to help governments and regulators take urgent action to combat disinformation, data manipulation, and fake news. Strong evidence points to Russia as the primary source of disinformation, which aims to divide and weaken Europe. Russia is said to spend €1.1bn a year on pro-Kremlin media and maintain the ‘troll factory’ based in St Petersburg.
The author claims “tactical approaches,” like targeting the “supply side” of the problem – “unmasking Russia-linked fake accounts, blocking disreputable sources, and adjusting algorithms to limit public exposure to false and misleading news” – is not enough, despite efforts to develop “policy responses, such as soft guidelines for industry, national legislation, and strategic communications.” What is needed is a “broad-based strategy addressing both supply and demand.”
Education is the best long-term solution to combat disinformation online, because young minds need help to build defences against propaganda and conspiracy theories. Countries like Finland, Holland, Italy and Sweden have taken the fight against fake news to the classroom, by teaching digital literacy and critical thinking. Many are convinced that disinformation is ineffective against a well-educated public. Citizens should be encouraged to conduct research, take part in workshops and educational programmes, and create methods that help build resistance to disinformation.
As the problem of disinformation on the internet and social media sowing confusion, undermining trust in expertise, and polarising opinion is getting only worse, the author revisits the containment policy devised by the Cold War architect, George F. Kennan, at the height of the superpower rivalry. He recommended a policy of "long-term, patient, but firm and vigilant containment" to "confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world". He also predicted the collapse of Soviet communism decades later.
The problem is that Russia’s relentless targeting of hyper-partisan views, which play to the fears and prejudices of people, in order to influence their voting plans and their behaviour, is so pervasive and sophisticated that there is little an open society in theWest can do to contain it, due to the internet. The only weapon the West can wield is to educate its citizens and keep them posted. The author is right: “If we do not strengthen societies from within, we cannot hope to withstand threats from without.”
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Olli Ranta Mar 11, 2019

Please note that systematic disinformation is not new. Stalin and Hitler headed huge campaigns of it. In Western world you can see the anti-communist machinery fully working even today. When CIA was founded at about 1950 it was assigned with the duty to do anti-communist propaganda work. Lying was permitted outside of US as "the communists do it anyway". This border turned out impossible to keep but not-true information was established on a broad basis in US, too. The anti-war sentiment during 1970's caused some of that US side to be revealed. See "How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up" by Carl Bernstein as published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977 http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
See http://www.mintpressnews.com/cias-60-year-history-fake-news-deep-state-corrupted-many-american-writers/236042/ by Robert Scheer.

The pro-US sentiment of late 1980's permitted CIA to expand its influence greatly outside of US. Only at that time all the news medias in my home country Finland took a strongly anti-communist stand. For one treatment see "Critical voices silenced across Southeast Asia" in https://www.fortifyrights.org/commentary-20171119.html (originally in atimes). Quite much of the after 2012 Russian propaganda is a mirror image of perceived CIA operations at Soviet time.

In China matters you can see real competition between the Western and local voices. On sites like project-syndicate or http://www.atimes.com/tag/china/ you see both traditional all-negative-against-china articles and then the other kind where the writer actually attempts to present a balanced and well informed view. In addition to that you can sometimes see good articles by Western scholars in Chinese media like the next http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1089747.shtml by Stephen S. Roach.
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stephan Edwards Mar 11, 2019

Could the fact democracy as practiced in the "Western Democracies" isn't working for a plurality headed rapidly towards a majority have something to with things? Our governments of either party blatantly don't care what's best for the majority but merely what's wanted by the wealthy has the recent Princeton study PROVED!!
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Which kind of means anybody promising a change is (misinformation or not) likely to get elected. I would suggest our so called "Elites" Political, Economic, and Academic are looking for the causes for the rise of Misinformation, Populism, Authoritarianism, Protectionism, and Trumpism. Should probably start by looking in the mirror. Trump wasn't elected because most of the voters believed he would do anything for them or because of misinformation (Russian or otherwise) He was the grenade tossed by the losers of the system at the system. And until the winners face the fact the SYSTEM ISN'T WORKING. The losers will continue tossing Grenades and voting for anyone promising to bring down the system. Misinformation isn't the problem I'm afraid. The problem is the system sodomizes NOT serves a plurality and the people know it. I hate break the news to all the east and west coast folks in their I'm doing well so who cares about the rust belt bubbles. The problem is......(Drum roll please) People know the truth and HATE the system that has systematically and utterly cut them off from any benefit from the status quo and the winners who rub it in their faces while laughing at them and holding them in contempt. The problem isn't misinformation it's the growing HATE caused by the truth of the system.
- alibullard Mar 17, 2019
  
  A trenchant response with which I agree except that we must add in the role of weaponized religion and degraded educational systems that keep the voting public enthralled to authority, and fearful of empirical thinking.
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Petey Bee Mar 11, 2019

Kennan's words in the conclusion are appropriate, although it seems his positivist vision of how the US could behave as a world power (in response to various communist accusations of imperialism and so forth) - this part of his advice was not actually accepted, and when he is quoted fondly by foreign policy folk, his legacy is reduced to simplistic things he said about "containment" in the late 40's.

As for disinformation - while deeply obnoxious, it is as old as speech itself. A singular focus on "fact checking", I think, is a bit like proposing that we can't live without eating antibiotics all the time, lest bacteria kill us all. In reality, most of the time, excessive overtreatment will cause more harm, not less.

In the war of rhetoric, the worst damage comes from arguments with solid basis in actual true information. If one wishes to disrupt a government, for instance, rarely can fabrications and conspiracy theories be as damning as the real details of greed and power when they intersect.

In a strange irony, the harder we try to protect the public from ugly truths presented out of context with an ulterior motive, the more the effort backfires - because it then appears that well meaning guardians of public mores are complicit in covering up for the subjects of the stories they curate.

It gets no better when the motivation is commercial rather than political. We wish to demonstrate to the public, a healthy respect for facts. But it is not long before this effort gets sabotaged, any time any possible choice between profit and public good has to be made. The anointed fact checkers invariably stay on the sidelines in even the most egregious cases, when the offender is a big business in good standing. Later we wonder why demagogues have such an easy time convincing audiences to mistrust authority.
- Marc Laventurier Mar 12, 2019
  
  Just another day in "the marketplace of ideas"...
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