It’s been interesting watching the discussion around ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’ and ‘extremist content’ online. In fact, this is a new concept that has only recently entered the public discussion around digital technologies and social media. I think it is remarkable that our political elites consider them such a threat to democracy that their solution is to override one of the foundations of democracy: freedom of speech.
As part of her ‘Christchurch Call’, the former Prime Minister proposed that all platforms be required to have guidelines and codes of conduct to combat ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’ and ‘extremist content’ online. In fact, she suggested that free speech is a ‘weapon of war’.
InternetNZ, the so-called representative body for the IT industry in New Zealand is talking about controlling what content should and should not be on the New Zealand domain which they control.
I’ve seen this before. In China, the Internet is controlled by the government. Every major tech company such as Tencent and Alibaba has to have a controlling stake by the government. This allows the government to decide what the platforms can and cannot have on their websites. This also includes social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo and Tiktok.
The government monitors what content is posted up on these platforms to stop any ‘incitement, seditious content or extremist content’. This content included Falun Gong content, Uyghur Muslim content, coverage of the Hong Kong protests and, more recently, reporting on the origins of Covid and the anti-lockdown protests in China.
There is no doubt that misinformation exists. The mainstream media has fallen for misinformation. The most famous example is the Russian collusion hoax. Despite forcing Donald Trump to promise that he would accept the results of the election, the media freaked out when he won in 2016. They screamed that this must have been due to Russian interference. This was based on a dossier put together by a consulting firm hired by the Clinton campaign to spy on the Trump campaign. This was enabled due to FISA (Federal and Security Act) warrants which allowed intelligence agencies to spy on Trump. Of course, all of this came out in the Durham probe when it was discovered that all of the people connected to the dossier lied under oath.
Some misinformation has even ruined people’s lives. Nick Sandmann was attacked by the woke mob for mocking a Native American when a clip showed him smiling when confronted by a Native American at the March for Life. This was made worse for him as he was wearing a Trump hat. Eventually, a further video revealed that he in fact had been the victim of harassment. Nick later won a lawsuit against the major news networks for defamation.
Another famous case is Kyle Rittenhouse, portrayed in the media as an evil white supremacist who shot three peaceful BLM protesters. What they forgot to mention was that he was a lifeguard who was part of a group protecting the town of Kenosha during the time of ‘fiery but mostly peaceful protests’ back in the summer of 2020.
Video footage later showed that Kyle rushed in to stop rioters pushing a flaming cart into a gas station which could have caused an explosion. This escalated tensions with the first victim attempting to grab his rifle forcing him to shoot in self-defence. Later footage would show him calling for an ambulance after realising he had shot someone. He was then chased by the crowd of protesters with the second and third catching up to him. The second chasing him tried to bash him with a skateboard and grab his gun leading him to shoot the second. The third then reached for what would later be revealed to be a pistol forcing him to shoot the third.
The media has also suppressed what they call misinformation and disinformation which later turned out to be true. One was the Covid Lab leak theory, which posited the possibility of the virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab researching gain of function. This theory was first discussed among Chinese dissidents and journalists who spoke about this lab being near the area where the first cases were reported.
Another was the Hunter Biden laptop story, a story that was dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy. The computer shop technician that gave the laptop to the FBI when Hunter Biden failed to collect it was charged with theft. Any media outlet, such as the New York Post, that covered the story was accused of spreading fake news. Of course, all the emails and content eventually revealed it to all be true.
Finally, it was considered misinformation that right-wing accounts were being shadow-banned on Twitter until Elon Musk’s release of the Twitter files showed slack messages between Twitter engineers talking about banning right-wing accounts.
New Zealand is not isolated from the elite’s efforts to stop any inconvenient truths. Ardern’s cabinet formed the Disinformation Project much like Biden’s Disinformation Board.
The group includes a cultural historian, a civic journalist and a social historian. If you look into their academic backgrounds, none of it is to do with misinformation. Kate Hannah and Kayli Taylor have arts degrees, which means that their research methods involve their applying theories or ‘lenses’ to the world they see around them. Their research interests reflect their subscription to the Frankfurt School of critical theory. This means that their analysis of the world reflects a Marxist world view which suggests that anything contrary to their political agenda would be considered misinformation or extreme content.
What the government has deemed misinformation has included that the vaccine causes harm and has killed people and that the vaccine was going to be mandatory. All of which we now know to be true.
I do not doubt that misinformation and disinformation exist but I do not trust the government to decide what information is and what information isn’t.
I trust people to look at all perspectives and opinions and to decide what is and isn’t true.
Governments and media are not the best people to decide what information is true and false. The information age has allowed the power to broadcast information to be decentralised. This has allowed inconvenient truths about institutions to be disseminated.
Citizens are now able to hold governments to account by using their smartphones and social media. This is why controls on information networks are dangerous. This is especially so for a democracy as it allows the government to censor the truth as well as criticism.
Of course, all of this is based on the concept of truth. The original intention of a journalist was to uncover the truth but that could only work if truth was objective. This is why we have the concept of ‘objectivity’ in journalism.
However, secularism got rid of this by suggesting that truth is subjective and that it is a matter of your opinion.
Postmodernism has gone even further by claiming that truth is whatever you experience and is based on your perception of reality.
Because the idea of objective truth has been eclipsed, journalists’ original purpose of looking for truth has disappeared; their efforts are now based on pushing their own opinion and views on the population. In New Zealand, this has been sold as ‘protecting democracy’ and ‘holding power to account’. When journalism turns from a public good into a product, this means they are pushing the opinions of their sponsors. In New Zealand, this means pushing the Labour Government’s line in return for funding.
Journalism is dead. Now that truth is subjective there is no point to journalism. It is now whatever messages the journalist wants or the people paying them want.
The silver lining to this is that if the truth is subjective then there is no such thing as misinformation and disinformation. That is, after all, just a perspective.