Abstract
In Challenging Online Propaganda and Disinformation in the 21st Century, Miloš Gregor and Petra Mlejnková challenge the assumption that rapidly developing technologies, and the digital lives they enable, signal a march toward social democratisation and empowerment. While they do not deny that societies may become more informed and resilient in the face of technological development, this book offers an interrogation of the ways in which these technologies enable the spread of disinformation and propaganda, and the importance of keeping up with rapid changes and adapting to new risks.
Editors Gregor and Mlejnková have a history teaching on wartime propaganda and disinformation campaigns in non-democratic countries. Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, however, it became apparent that disinformation and propaganda campaigns were not a relic of the past, and that new technologies had enabled their rapid expansion into mainstream information ecosystems. They have since undertaken analyses, public debates, lectures in the Czech Republic and abroad, and established media literacy and critical thinking projects for school students. This edited volume is the culmination of a three-year research project bringing together research institutes and academics exploring the phenomena of online disinformation and propaganda from various perspectives. The book includes chapters from professors, assistant professors and PhD candidates from Masaryk University, working across a range of fields, including Political Science, Social Studies, Social Science, Computer Science, IT, Informatics, and Law.
This volume is split into two sections, with the first focusing on how to define and differentiate disinformation and propaganda, its changing nature in the technological age, and looming threats and challenges to be aware of. The second part considers how disinformation and propaganda might be detected, analysed and combatted. The first chapter establishes a context in which propaganda and disinformation can mobilise citizens and ‘promote political outcomes’ (p. 16). It also details the recent shift towards relativity in the ‘post-truth era’ (p. 23) where information is so abundant that truth is considered relative. In Chapter 2, Pavlíková, Šenkýřová, and Drmola discuss how the Internet has been used as a ‘non-kinetic weapon’ to influence operations across the globe (p. 43), enabling non-state actors to interfere in foreign elections, before identifying the manipulative potential of tools based on machine-learning, such as deep fakes. In Chapter 3, Mareš and Mlejnková explain how the strategic use of disinformation online amounts to a serious security threat, while paying attention to the tension that arises when considering the limits of free speech. Closing Part I, Kasl grapples with this same tension, focusing on the labelling of speech from a legal perspective.
The second section begins with an assessment of potential disinformation detection approaches, and assesses the contributions of various researchers attempting to develop methods for sentiment detection and truth analysis via machine-learning, (Horák, Baisa and Herman, p. 149). Meanwhile, Polčák and Kasl expound the ‘complexities of working with electronic evidence’ (p. 174), and the challenges of gaining access to data which might be considered evidence, but is ‘extraterritorial’ in the sense that it resides in cyberspace, not a physical jurisdiction. Chapter 7 focuses on institutional responses of several European countries to disruptive information campaigns and ‘information warfare’ (p. 196). Some responses include public warnings and statements, voter and party education and media-literacy, education of state employees, establishment of special ministerial bodies, media training and support for investigative journalism, counter-propaganda campaigns, and diplomatic pressure, with multi-pronged approaches deemed most effective. The final contribution, by Jonáš Syrovátka, hones in on civil society initiatives across central Europe, and the important roles played by individuals, non-government organizations, journalists, and academics in the fight to combat disinformation. The book’s conclusion ultimately emphasizes the ‘necessity of a society-centric approach’ (p. 258) as democratic systems adapt to the increasingly challenging online information ecosystem. Resilience is called for, at the individual cognitive, societal, and institutional levels, while laws and policies should evolve to tackle emerging challenges.
While Challenging Online Propaganda and Disinformation in the 21st Century focuses on a European context, it provides a thorough analysis of the current information landscape, and the interweaving dynamics of technology, economics, politics, and ideology. As such, it should be read widely by researchers and professionals in the fields of politics, international relations, security and strategic studies, to gain insight into threats that are relatively new to our modern, globally-connected, digital arena. The book would also be of interest to those researching or working in the fields of law, policy making, computer science, and information technologies as well as ethicists and theorists, ruminating on the limits of freedom, corporate freedom, and state regulation. The methodologies, frameworks, and discussions throughout should prove useful to researchers looking to investigate these same phenomena across the globe.
Unspoken in this publication, though not entirely absent, is a critique or interrogation of the role of capital growth to the proliferation of disinformation and propaganda. Although profit is named as a motivating force for fake news production or data harvesting, it would be worth paying attention to the capitalist structures which defend the tech giants, whose platforms have become both battlefields and weapons of information warfare. Particularly in response to Part II, it is interesting to consider the time and resources some countries allocate to countering disinformation and propaganda campaigns, when it may be argued that digital media platforms shoulder much of the responsibility for the proliferation of disinformation. While European governments may seek cooperation from Facebook and Google in their efforts to combat information warfare (Hanzelka and Pavlíková, p. 202), it may be that, alone, they are relatively powerless to demand significant change or oversight. While legal measures detailed throughout the book pose questions about jurisdictions and freedom of speech, an assessment of why states might be reluctant to demand accountability from tech giants, or the challenges involved with pitching regulation of these entities, could prove worthwhile.