Social Media Anarchy and the Death of Information
The mere fact that, every single day, we are fighting disinformation, is the only proof we need that the anarchy is alive and well.
(This essay was originally published in MARKA zine on April 9, 2022)
The rise of the computing age is both a boon and a curse. On the one hand, the internet gave us easy access to information like never before. With the click of a button, we can literally read news articles, journals and scholarly works usually for free. This is unprecedented and a far cry from how we access information in the nineties and the early new millennium, when we had to use catalog cards and sift through dozens of books just to build a concise review of literature.
The advantages of the internet for information is indubitable. Its main selling point is the fact that it can update information in real time, something that would be impossible for books or even broadsheets. It is not a surprise that the internet, in particular social media, has become the norm for spreading news: it is fast, it is free, and it can also be a platform for community engagement. The slow death of broadsheets is a strong evidence of who won in this media war.
Another major advantage of social media is its perceived “democracy.” Before, only qualified journalists and subject matter experts could write news, columns, or books. After all, printing is an expensive process: you have to pay for editors, layout artists, and the physical paraphernalia like the printing machine and the paper to be able to produce a printed work. Thus, traditional printing required (and still does require) greater scrutiny before any work can be published.
This kind of hindrance doesn’t exist in social media. While news websites do exist (either as an extension of a physical newspaper, or just a digital one like Rappler) and employ the same rigor, the truth is anyone with an internet connection can spread information on the world wide web. You can see it in the thousands of chefs and “dieticians” spreading healthy recipes on TikTok, or the mindfulness life hacks on YouTube, to financial wellness tips on Facebook. While this freedom did entail a plethora of free and potentially useful information, the unrestricted nature of how anyone can spread information, and tag it as such, presented a very real modern danger.
The Death of Information
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines information as “knowledge derived from investigation, study, or instruction. [It is] intelligence, news, facts, or data.” Using this definition, it is definitely clear that information is not just any potential source of knowledge, but it is something that should be derived from careful investigation or scrutiny.
Before the internet, procuring information using the above standards was generally not a problem. You have two main sources of printed information: newspapers written by journalists and books written by people in the academe who all follow the scientific method. That, and the expensive nature of publishing in general, meant that any information gathered, printed, and spread all underwent major review before seeing the light of day. People, then, generally trusted their contents.
The same rigor cannot be said to exist on the internet. The democratic nature of the platform means that everyone and their grandmother can post anything and claim it as fact. It is already happening now in very sinister ways, with the Duterte election being heavily attributed to troll propaganda, and the Marcos disinformation brigade trying to follow in his footsteps.
Of course, this is not to say that information before the internet is infallible: it is not. Black propaganda or otherwise had been present for thousands of years, dating back to Darius I of Persia. However, it is also important to note that control of information at this scale only happened with a tremendous amount of power. The common men would never have as much influence as they had now on social media, and probably would not have progressed past gossip and hearsay. Marcos even had to declare martial law to be able to seize control of newspapers and TV stations. This is something that is out of realm for the common citizen.
Social Media Anarchy
The very power that social media gave people was the very same power it used to destroy them. Nowadays, the ease of spreading information means the same convenience of spreading disinformation. And unlike before when the printed word only came in one form, “information” nowadays comes in so many more bite-sized and easily consumable pieces. The fact that educational institutions, in an attempt to make learning more inclusive, has started to normalize the use of Tiktok or Facebook as valid sources of research does not help. Truly, common folk are now drawn to TikTok or Twitter or Facebook posts and memes as they are more accessible, easier to understand, and generally more “inclusive” to them as compared to the more “elitist” news websites.
These developments then beg two questions. First, if information no longer requires careful investigation, study and scrutiny, then can it still be called information? Second, if anyone can post anything on social media without major consequences, then is it really a democratic platform?
I for one believe that the internet is an anarchy, which means the absence or denial of any authority or established order. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, also opined the same:
“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.”
While we have put safeguards on what people can and cannot access, and the likes of social media platforms putting restrictions on what and what not to post, the reality is it is a losing battle. Human ingenuity and innovation works faster than the internet can police, and while one can argue that we are at a much better place now than ever before in making the internet and social media a much more responsible place to be, the cold truth is that our modern networks are paved with our previous dismal failures. The mere fact that, every single day, we are fighting disinformation, is the only proof we need that the anarchy is alive and well.
However, that doesn’t mean that we should give up and get swallowed in the lawlessness. The fact is, the powers-that-be have used the chaos of the internet to gain and consolidate power, but as real human citizens, it is in our hands to make sure that information as we know it would not die. There are multitudes of calls now to make the internet a more responsible place, including the #FactsFirstPH initiative by Rappler. Facebook has also implemented a feature now wherein anyone can tag a post as falsehood, which helps, but could be expounded further to completely blocking or deleting them without being prompted.
Remember that one of the cornerstones of democracy is fairness and equality to all. Therefore, as members of this country and the internet community, it is each of our responsibility to keep this fairness in balance. Spreading misinformation is unfair as we are stealing the truth from other people who need it. There is a long way to go and a whole lot of work to be done, but I truly believe that information, as we know it, will be reborn. Let’s just hope that it would not be all in vain.
Jay-ar Paloma is an HR executive by day and a frustrated artist by night. He has extensive background in campus journalism as an editor-in-chief in elementary and high school as well as a contributor in his college days in UP Diliman. Currently the Associate Editor at Vox Populi PH, he likes to read and write fiction and opinion pieces relating to LGBTQ, social media, and culture. When not engrossed in a book, he is probably playing a tune on his guitar or keyboard. Leave your love notes to Jay-ar here: jr@voxpopuliph.com.
