In today’s world, anyone can access and create information, but post-truth has spread rapidly. It refers to the deliberate distortion of reality and manipulation of beliefs to influence people. To combat this, public institutions, companies, and technological platforms need to be involved along with citizens’ reflection. Technology post-truth

Anyone with a smartphone or an internet connection can currently consume information without any limitations or physical barriers and also create it. However, despite the greater access to content, news and sources in recent times, the concept of post-truth has spread at breakneck speed.

What is post-truth?

The dictionary defines post-truth as a neologism that refers to the purposeful distorting of reality and the manipulation of beliefs and emotions with the intention of influencing the general public’s opinions and choices..

The origin of the concept dates back to the early 1990s when Serbian playwright Steve Tesich used the word post-truth in an article published in the newspaper The Nation. However, over a number of years, in the wake of the advent of mass media and digital transformation, post-truth has become an even greater challenge for current-day democratic societies.

In order to resolve this problem, public and private organizations must promote a critical spirit, attacking disinformation by means of the reflexive participation of the population. Because disinformation and the generation of hoaxes add to the context in which post-truth thrives, with the aim of manipulating feelings and emotions and relegating objective facts to the background.

Within the above context, society can harness technology to combat post-truth by relying on innovative tools to filter sources and instill critical thinking into citizens, thereby helping them to recognize when information is truthful or untruthful.

The social consequences of post-truth Technology post-truth  

The spread of hoaxes is just one of many detrimental effects that the popularization of post-truth has on a democratic society, Telefonica wrote. First, post-truth creates dialogue based on its capacity to inspire belief in assertions and justifications that, while appearing to be true, are false and unsupported.

Additionally, because of the quantity and speed of connectivity-driven information that citizens have been subjected to, the data are frequently unverified. However, when verification is carried out and a lie is exposed, there are rarely any serious repercussions or consequences for those accountable because they frequently maintain their standing and legitimacy in the public view.

In the field of politics, the construction of post-truth is sometimes used to redirect citizens toward a particular political ideology. This affects, above all, the thoughts and behavior of undecided citizens.

The construction of post-truth has been linked to the phenomena of fake news and hoaxes. Disinformation is nothing new, but, in recent years, particularly during the coronavirus health crisis, the efforts to connect emotionally with citizens and convince them with its discourses has increased, thus conditioning decision-making.

Using new technology to fight post-truth

Innovation in technology has been used to spread hate speech, create polarization, and sway public opinion during moments of crisis. However, it shouldn’t be vilified because it is a powerful ally in the fight against post-truth and its advantages vastly exceed its drawbacks. Given the speed at which the contents spread, connectivity plays a role in the answer to combating misinformation.

Data verification and artificial intelligence

The role of verification agencies is becoming increasingly relevant in democratic societies, as their main objective is to ensure that data transmitted en masse register a high degree of truthfulness. This role is also played by technological tools that can contribute to locating the post-truth. Therefore, if the two solutions are brought together, the verification processes can be streamlined and optimised.

Significant progress has already been made in terms of professional data verification and technological innovation. The https://www.newtral.es/Newtral platform has developed the tool with AI Claim Hunter. This tool listens to, transcribes and detects declarations and chiefly focuses on verifying claims made by politicians. Its purpose is to optimise and automate the work of journalists by locating false and true statements. The application has achieved accuracy above 85% in Spanish and the team is now working on developing multilingual AI functions.

Auditing algorithms on social media Technology post-truth

Apart from private verification agencies, some data experts advocate the creation of truth commissions to put all the disinformation ecosystems in order by means of technological innovation. Another relevant option is the formation of a public body to drive the creation of an ethical framework in partnership with the private sector to lead changes in the content structures of social platforms and networks. This solution involves auditing the algorithms of the technology firms, which give rise to most of the hoaxes on the internet.

There are algorithms whose source codes can be viewed by anyone, enabling their data to be examined, and there are others whose code makes it impossible to determine what data they collect and how they were created. The effect of the algorithm is typically evaluated to address this issue; in other words, automation is programmed to represent various user types while the resources of each algorithm are analyzed. Therefore, reverse engineering is used to determine how decisions are made on social media.

One of the challenges that brings policy and technology together involves the creation of a registry of algorithms to compile all the information that they each contain. There are initiatives currently working on the above, such as the Observatory of Algorithms with Social Impact, promoted by the Eticas Foundation. The tool it has produced can categorize and arrange all the algorithms of the major social networks according to their social influence and dominance. Thus, it is possible to comprehend the effects and application of the methods.

Is technology an effective tool in combating the spread of post-truth and disinformation?