We live in an age of information abundance, and misinformation and disinformation are strategic tools that actively contribute to systems of discrimination and violence that undermine our social cohesion and resilience – from the individual to the state and in our region.
Mis/disinformation strategies have been around for as long as there has been information. What is different now, and why information carries such currency, is its intersection with modern technology. How can you tell fact from fiction when reality itself is up for grabs?
Australia, like many other nations, is grappling with the insidious and pervasive issue of mis/disinformation and its consequences for our democracy, society and security with consequences for our collective response to external threats. Our resilience to these threats is dependent on the ability of government and its apparatus to understand and communicate how the different pieces of resilience come together to inform government decisions about a ‘national defence’.
The federal government is seeking to introduce new laws that give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) powers to respond to mis/disinformation online. But more could be done to better address the complexity of this challenge.
The consequences of mis/disinformation are far-reaching. There is no online space in which individuals are not exposed, either as consumers or suppliers. Mis/disinformation has consequences for all public policy-making. These forces are already eroding trust among communities and individuals in Australia with consequences for Australia’s peace and security.
Cohesion is a barometer of communities’ resilience – today cohesion is being threatened by movements that disrupt and interrupt with violent measures. Violence and the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East are linked to increasing numbers of racial vilification incidents reported in Australia demonstrating the corrosive presence of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The absence of racism data in Australia did nothing to hide the increased racial abuse directed at Chinese Australians at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If government efforts are to improve social cohesion and resilience, a human rights-based approach to mis/disinformation prevention and response strategies is needed. This approach promotes participatory processes, and inclusive solutions focused on the protection and promotion of human rights. It provides a lens through which Australia’s national security community can shape their investments to ensure social cohesion is understood, embedded, and protected as a component of Australia’s preparedness to crisis and threats outlined in the Defence Strategic Review.
Mis/disinformation fractures trust and understanding, makes online spaces unsafe and prevents some from participating in public processes out of fear of persecution, harassment, and violence – and is doing so at a time of increasing security challenges.
The Voice referendum demonstrated the vulnerability of Australia’s democratic processes to misinformation. The Australian Electoral Commission maintained a disinformation register and received more than 100,000 social media tags per week throughout the referendum.
And while the Australian Electoral Commission continues to work diligently to put out the spot fires of misinformation online, without concurrent changes to truth in political advertising it is difficult to see how its vulnerability is resolved. That Australia’s political leaders were asked to consider the consequences of political statements for social cohesion demonstrates the potential influence for harm in our communities when social cohesion is threatened.
This matters because Australians do not trust their public institutions – government and media are viewed as particularly more divisive than other sectors.
When the government needs to issue public interest information in crisis, trust, and a social licence to operate are critical.
In Australia, mis/disinformation fuels divisiveness and racism, hampering our ability to build just futures and inclusive communities with the requisite resilience to respond to crises. Mis/disinformation online is used with particular effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – their safety and well-being. Australia’s public health response to COVID-19 could have been improved by Indigenous-led, culturally appropriate health security initiatives, with consideration of the impact of misinformation on vaccine uptake.
It is worth reading the recommendations in full outlined by Professor Bronwyn Fredericks to better engage with the safety and well-being needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people online in response to changes to ACMA powers in Australia. The response noted that mis/disinformation online is “a determining factor of social health and well-being outcomes.”
This demonstrates the criticality of using an intersectional lens to address the various ways groups are harmed online. It also highlights the need for transformational long-term investment in local strategies for intercultural safety and well-being to strengthen resilience in Australian communities and address the root causes of these practices.
A human-rights based approach could also support the safeguards and transparency required to connect prevention and response efforts to a resilient community and robust democracy. Connecting strengthened government accountability and transparency initiatives, particularly those that seek to strengthen institutional integrity, are key to restoring trust in government institutions.
Australia’s strategic environment is complex: the Defence Strategic Review has warned of increased strategic competition in the region impacting our interests. While this is true, it is the IPCC Synthesis Report that continues to recognise human activity as the cause of global warming and identified an increase in global temperatures up to 1.3 degrees that may give us more immediate concern – Australia is facing a potential disastrous summer with severe heat and limited rainfall.
Dis/misinformation that seeks to divide us and fracture communities undermines our collective ability to respond to these threats. The interdependencies of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and societies that are shaping Australia’s security and resilience settings today will require social cohesion for effective preparedness strategies. A cohesive community can provide a foundation for resilience in the face of evolving threats, particularly if those threats start to collapse and compound. Individuals and communities need to be able to understand, trust and hold accountable government information in crisis, whether it is a cybersecurity or an environmental disaster.
Addressing mis/disinformation and building social cohesion are integral to Australia’s ability to respond effectively in crisis, both domestic and international.
We need an intersectional lens to mis/disinformation prevention and response that centres human rights. This would prioritise local strategies to remove structures of discrimination and inequality to build the resilience needed to respond to collective challenges and engage critically with information online.
A human rights-based approach to preventing and responding to mis/disinformation offers an opportunity to better understand, reflect and actively maintain Australia’s cultural assets as part of a broader national defence. One that recognises the interdependence of Australia’s social cohesion to our preparedness, response, and recovery to crisis. This should include government initiatives that seek to address ongoing systems of discrimination and inequality, while alleviating the effects of mis/disinformation online.
Our ability to prepare and respond to crisis may depend upon it.
