Internet and Democracy

 Internet is filled with new opportunities and information. We use it to communicate and make our life a little easy. Through Internet now it’s easy for us to stay connected with the entire world and know what is happening everywhere. Using internet we are able to express our point of view regarding a certain issue. We now have the power to let the powerful know what we think of them. But that is not all that it has to offer, internet is also filled with misleading information and false news. It has hoaxes and people tend to believe them. 

This made democracy a little hard. Internet ofcourse helps the democracy in many ways, like by letting the masses know what’s been happening, so that they can come to their own conclusion out of true facts. But, it is not as easy as it seems. It also introduces the users with posts around a certain issue but these posts are filled with misinformation. These false or manipulated information is there to mislead the masses to turn their attention to somewhere else, while hiding what actually should be addressed, and that clouds their judgement.

One of the primary issues with Internet and Democracy is the prevailing fake news which has the capacity to engulf the entire society and destroy democracy. During this COVID crisis misinformation around vaccines spread and these hoaxes made people to panic and many started to oppose vaccination. Resulting to increasing numbers of COVID Cases.

Fake News and misinformation had also been subjected to affect the results of elections of democratic countries. Posts around religious and cultural issues has been known to instigate violence and fake news had even taken many lives. The issues of internet is being addressed and many sites have started to work towards a better internet experience which won’t destroy democracy.

 Social Media sites are trying to filter out fake news through fact checking. All this while one thing is more important and that is Media Literacy. Internet related services are a part of New Media and Media Literacy can help the masses to stay vigilant and not to fall pray to such false information and propagandas. Misleading information and hoaxes always find a way to infiltrate Internet even with strict filtration. At the end of the day it is users responsibility to stay vigilant.


✍️ Swarnali Chakraborty



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Quick Review Of The Docudrama, "The Social Dilemma".

Image
The new Netflix  documentary drama “The Social Dilemma,” is about how technology firms have influenced human psychology with disastrous effects for our society, is unlikely to have an impact on these companies’ profit lines. A new Netflix documentary drama called The Social Dilemma has encouraged some social media users to deactivate their accounts, but it’s unlikely to make a difference in the tech behemoths it tackles. Since its premiere on Netfilx, Indiewire has praised “The Social Dilemma” as “perhaps the only best clear, concise, and genuinely disturbing critique of social media ever created in part,” while tech analyst Benedict Evans has criticised the video as “deceptive and factually incorrect.” The documentary “The Social Dilemma” looks at how the Internet’s most popular programmes work on a simple business model of analysing users’ behaviour in order to sell tailored adverts and create a vicious circle of addiction. Interviews with tech professionals, including many forme...
Read more

Kolkata recalls Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Kabuliwala,’ the well-known Afghan hero

Image
 After seeing horrible images of people hanging from planes, Kolkata-based Pashtuns, also known as Kabuliwalas, are concerned about their loved ones.  As the situation in Afghanistan worsens, Afghans in Kolkata pray for their families who are trapped in the quagmire. The Pashtuns of Kolkata, also known as Kabuliwalas (men from Kabul), are concerned for the safety of their loved ones after witnessing terrifying images of individuals being shot in broad daylight while hanging from planes.  Every guy in those Afghan videos resembles Rahmat Khan, the fictitious Kabuliwala from Rabindranath Tagore’s ageless great short story. The guys have distinguishing qualities such as a “benevolent smile” and a particular wearing style that sets them apart from the rest of the community. After Nobel Laureate Rabi wrote it in 1892, the merchant community became well-known. Bimal Roy adapted the novel into a film directed by Hemen Gupta in 1961, immortalising the stor...
Read more