Fake news and Politics ⑴

Basile Morin

The novel "The Plague" by French author Albert Camus (1913-1960) has once again gained attention during the coronavirus pandemic. It may have been read as a lighthouse illuminating a dark night of uncertainty about how people should behave and live.

This work was published in 1947, shortly after World War II. The plague (Black Death) breaks out in a certain part of North Africa, and the town is sealed off. Citizens are fearful, rumors fly, people abuse others, the government is incompetent, and looting and fraud are rampant. It is said that many readers compared the society affected by this epidemic to the war with the Nazis. Even now, in Europe, the United States, and China, there are many politicians who liken the coronavirus pandemic to a "War" to encourage the people and control society.

Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel, a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome

There are errors and substitutions in this view. What Camus wrote was a story about how humans faced a society eroded by absurdity, not a story of heroism in which a foreign enemy was defeated. As predicted by this novel, what is happening right before our eyes is hidden injustice, disparities in medical care, and exposed violence. The true nature of the anxiety that drives citizens is the reality of this society, which politics are trying to cover up with causes such as "War."

The pandemic is taking a toll on health, but the "infodemic," a flood of untrue and false information that fuels people's anxiety, endangers society itself. International research studies are beginning to elucidate the correlation between the occurrence of an infodemic and the incidence of coronavirus infections. Rumors, misinformation, and conspiracy theories spread on online platforms such as SNS tend to increase rapidly before the peak of the number of infected people, which is having a negative impact on public health.

The situation becomes even worse under systems that attempt to exploit pandemics and infodemics for political purposes. As seen under the former Trump administration in the United States, the spread of false rumors that disrespected science, the underestimation of the current situation not based on data, and the unchecked conspiracy theories of supporters led to the world's worst infection. On the other hand, authoritarian governments such as Russia and China impose penalties and restrictions on the free press and the dissemination of highly reliable information, prioritizing social control and system stability.

According to a study by the International Institute of Newspaper Editors (IPI), an advisory body to the United Nations, more and more countries are enacting laws that restrict freedom of the press and speech in the name of cracking down on fake news. In particular, Russia's Putin administration, which has continued to suppress the press and opposition groups, saw this as an opportunity to begin regulating online platforms, following its legal control of newspapers and television media.

From a journalistic perspective, this kind of political intervention surrounding the infodemic is a double-edged sword with serious backlash. Rather, it is important to make proper use of new technology to uncover the causes of social unrest and fear, and appeal to the rationality of civil society. The pandemic has revealed a worldview that shows that healthy democratic societies are more capable of self-help. (to be continued)

*This text was taken from the author's Waseda University Extension College online course "Fake News and International Politics" released in February 2021.