Networked Disinformation & Its Threat to the Democratic Process: An Islamic Perspective

IAIS Malaysia - Islamic Science Talk Series (ISTS)
Networked Disinformation & Its Threat to the Democratic Process: An Islamic Perspective
Social media manipulation is a growing threat to democracies around the world, with evidence being discovered in each of the 81 countries surveyed by the University of Oxford in 2020.

Political parties, public relations firms, and governments are spending millions on 'cyber troops' to drown out other voices on social media. Misinformation has become more professionalised and is now produced at an industrial scale. Strategies include spreading computational propagandas using bots and other amplification strategies to create the impression of trending issues.

Social media has become a major battleground, with firms such as Facebook and Twitter taking steps to combat these ‘cyber troops'. Citizen influencers are also used to spread manipulated messages; including volunteers, youth groups and civil society organisations.

Under this backdrop, this Islamic Science Talk Series (ISTS) will be discussing the issue of networked disinformation and its threat to the democratic process from an Islamic perspective.