Misinformation on Social Media: A Threat to Democracy

Amanda Christensen, ideaXme guest contributor, Deepfake and Media Misinformation Researcher and Marketing Manager at Cubaka, interviews Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University and advisor to Protect Democracy.

Amanda Christensen comments:

Our relationship with social media is often conflicting. On the one hand, we’re more connected than ever before, both with one another as well as with public figures, news sources, and businesses. On the other, social media has proved to be easily exploitable and even dangerous, thanks to fake news, misinformation, echo chambers, and data breaches.

Recent events, such as Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, have exemplified both sides of social media. Digital communities are offering support, information, and resources to one another. Unfortunately, though, people are using these platforms to spread deadly misinformation and further societal divides, for both personal and political gain.

The multi-faced nature of social media begs many questions: who can be held accountable for the spread of misinformation? How can we prioritise objective information over clickbait and fake news? How are governments exploiting the nature of social media? Is social media changing and affecting democracy as we know it?

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Helping us gain insight on these issues is Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian, author, and political and cultural commentator. She is currently Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, as well as serving as an advisor to Protect Democracy, an organisation formed to prevent American Democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government.

She’s authored and edited seven books and several articles, such as her 2016 CNN essay on women and the draft, which is part of the United States Army’s curriculum, and her 2017 New Yorker essay on the persistence of Fascist monuments in Italy, which sparked an ongoing international debate on the legacy and memory of Mussolini’s regime. Her latest book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present, will be published by W.W. Norton & Company in March 2021.

On this episode we’ll hear from Ben-Ghiat about:

Her background; how she became interested in history, authoritarian leaders, facism, and media misinformation. Power tactics used by authoritarian leaders throughout history, and how these tactics are changing and potentially being aided by social media platforms. Her views on the degree of responsibility that governments and platforms have in fighting fake news and misinformation. The power of information and danger of misinformation in light of recent events such as Covid-19, the Black Lives Matter protests, and Twitter’s flagging of Trump’s tweets. 

This interview is in British English

Credits: Amanda Christensen interview video, text, and audio.

If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview with Dan Mapes on the Spatial Web: Web 3.0!

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