The War of Fake and Misleading News
By Khaled Massa
Hate speech was not the only fuel used to ignite the war machine that has been raging since mid-April last year. Confusion didnt deter the war promoters as they used means that supported its continuation, releasing information from every hand trying to extinguish what caught fire during the infamous month of lies.
False and misleading news were added to the war arsenal by those who knew there was no better environment than the battlefield to market such information. Its a commodity that serves the interests of those involved in the war, especially as it has been a tried and tested weapon in wars since World War I.
The post-war media scene in Sudan reveals that the initial shots of the war hit the institutional media, which had relied on the efforts of dedicated journalists for years. The states desire was not inclined toward a professional and ethical media performance. Consequently, public opinion became hostage to individual platforms and pages, driven by their own interests.
The intense desire to shape and direct public opinion towards specific narratives led several entities to abandon the minimum boundaries of professional and ethical standards in journalism. Thus, truth became the only absentee in the prototype of the war newspaper.
The clamor of false and misleading news in the echo chambers since the beginning of the war on truth resembled a snowball rolling down the peak of the war mountain, engulfing the recipients mind with what is assumed to be the truth.
News and facts became subject only to the desires of their owners and the limits of their whims, working to edit them according to their agenda, fueling the drowning process.
The drowning caused by false and misleading news is now responsible for the confusion of public opinion, resulting in numerous and immeasurable issues in dealing with the war itself and its humanitarian and political consequences.
We write here about the damage caused by this type of news during times of war, as it turns public opinion into fuel for a war whose consequences are often not understood. It turns the area of truth in media into a blind area full of mines.
With the widening reach of false and misleading news, the journalistic and media platforms promoting deceit, we need an alignment similar to the alignment of consciousness and enlightenment we called for in confronting hate speech.
This alignment should combat the deliberate flattening of public opinion and recipients. At the very least, it should use available tools to subject the torrent of flowing news to a self-regulating scrutiny that prevents the dissemination of harmful lies and deception to the public.
We write about how this kind of spicing up is harmful to public health, the safety of the nation, and its citizens. We emphasize the need for a conscious movement that awakens the critical thinking among those who interact with media platforms and circulating media content, which is being generously offered during this crucial time in Sudans history. Manipulating public opinion is one of the most dangerous weapons that can be used in war, if not the most significant weapon in shaping its outcome. It is wielded by professionals and experts well aware of its effectiveness. Under the banner of enticing headlines, the waters of deception flow, even if not under the dome of images and videos.
