India’s TikTok ban didn’t even slow disinformation. We need a better solution.

It’s 2024 declared “The biggest election year in history.”Countries from all over the world will be included in the voting greatest democracy — India — and the world richest overall (but unequal) — U.S.

Digital propaganda and online disinformation aimed at manipulating public opinion are rapidly increasing worldwide. both Country.However, in India, TikTok is Banned Since June 2020, as China is one of India’s biggest rivals.

In America, President Biden signed Laws that could ban TikTok — One of the reasons cited is limit Spreading disinformation. However, banning TikTok has not solved India’s disinformation problem. Rather, three major trends – influencers, WhatsApp and generative artificial intelligence – are deceiving voters and flooding them with false and misleading content, negatively impacting India’s democracy.

These are warning signs for the upcoming US presidential election. Policymakers, journalists, and the public would be wise to remain vigilant and work together towards solutions.

Through our field research in India this year, we saw everywhere the growing political importance of influencers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this. I love influencers But on the contrary, “influencers love him, too,” one veteran political consultant explained to me.

influencer teeth courtship Because these accounts have the potential to reach parts of the electorate that have traditionally been beyond the reach of campaigners. Additionally, influencers are perceived to be more authentic, and therefore less campaigning, due to their political content mixed in between topics such as beauty and workout advice.Finally, influencers are thought to be easier to control than trained journalists – even by countries. like India has seen a significant decline in critical journalism.

TikTok has been a beloved platform for Indian influencers, but Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts managed To fill the gap after the app’s ban. Therefore, rather than focusing on specific platforms, we need to address the underlying factors driving the spread of infection. False and misleading information from influencers.

The first is to establish transparency in paid political advertising online. As in India, complex intermediary systems are often the means to acquiring influencers. paid Although by political interests, the respective posts and videos are not declared as advertising content.

More pressingly, we need to trust in our strength in the United States. freedom of the press.

In the United States, broadcast newscasters are typically able to do their jobs without intimidation and report across the political spectrum. arrival Millions of people interpret events in their own way.Prime Minister Modi in India avoid Dear journalists, interpretations that do not agree with Prime Minister Modi, almost never broadcast Online media that pursues independent reporting targeted through forced collection of taxes and other forms of repression.

To push back against untrained and secretly paid influencers, American journalists are building on their strengths while recognizing that their profession is undergoing transformative change. You need to trust and take advantage of that freedom.

WhatsApp’s importance to Indian political campaigns was undisputed by everyone I spoke to. WhatsApp plays a dual role as the main organizational platform for political groups of all kinds. extensive It is used by everyone from local party branches to violent nationalist groups, and as a broadcasting tool to convey political messages.

WhatsApp is different from other social media. Purpose End-to-end encryption for private chats and groups. This means that messages sent between users cannot be deciphered by the platform itself or another third party. This makes existing countermeasure mechanisms such as deletion and content labeling impossible.

In 2024, WhatsApp has grown into a far-reaching platform, far from the private one-on-one or small group chat app it once was. This is the first election cycle in the world where political actors can utilize channels, utilize WhatsApp communities (which encompass multiple groups), and rely on groups. Up to 1,024 members. Therefore, large group chats of family and friends are possible, and false information can spread throughout his network privately in one original message of his. while avoiding scrutiny from corporate content moderators.

WhatsApp is very popular in the United States.Latinos and Asian Americans used in the community85 million American. previous the study The Propaganda Lab at the University of Texas, where I am the principal investigator, found that disinformation via WhatsApp can harm these communities.

If we want to avoid a wave of disinformation targeting minority communities in the United States in the lead-up to the presidential election, we need to focus on this now. However, given the sensitivity of the issue, policy discussions need to follow a bottom-up approach and aim for public-private partnerships rather than targeting encryption.

Several community-based interventions have occurred in the United States, some examples of which merit evaluation. fact check ador Indian American influence .For what it’s worth, there are preliminaryevidence Fact checking is more influential on WhatsApp than on Facebook. Finally, Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, must be responsible for: Continue We will crack down on unauthorized use of the app, such as mass transfers and forced group creation.

But tech companies alone can’t solve the disinformation problem, especially as attackers find new routes to reach end users. In this regard, banning or divesting TikTok may allay the concerns of policymakers who fear Chinese influence, but it will not establish a better public sphere online. If lawmakers and the public only bet on bans and companies finding technological solutions, our democracy is at risk.

Finally, all stakeholders in India are experimenting with generative AI, especially when it comes to content creation such as fabricated audio and video, or so-called deepfakes. While widespread, the propagandists I spoke to were skeptical about its persuasive power—mainly because it has no track record (yet) of manipulating public opinion.

Overall, this is another layer applied to the existing disinformation ecosystem.However, the content is already provided Generated AI influencer As well as the ubiquitous deepfake audio spreadCreated by a propagandist on WhatsApp.

We are moving into a future online space where it is unclear what is real, synthetic, or somewhere in between. This highlights the relevance of influencer trends. When it’s difficult (or impossible) to know what’s true online, the messenger, not the message, becomes more important. This highlights the need to counter electoral disinformation through multi-stakeholder collaboration, including public-private partnerships and building on strengths such as a free press and a vibrant civil society.

The final truth is that threats to our democratic public sphere come from above.Indian Prime Minister Modi and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump have utilizedManipulation means (but is not limited to) the dissemination of false and misleading content. Only a coalition of actors committed to liberal democracy across political lines can meet these challenges.

In India, several organizations strongly oppose Prime Minister Modi’s expanded targeting, but their future is uncertain. The United States has not suffered the same scale of democratic backsliding, so we should take advantage of that.

Ultimately, we, from policymakers to journalists to everyone else, will recognize how technology impacts our lives while asserting our agency as democratic citizens. Must be..

Inga Trautig is research director in the Propaganda Lab at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. Gabriel Beeken, a graduate researcher at the Propaganda Institute focused on international democratic backsliding, contributed research that informed this article.