KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X — they all have become a part of our lives. A couple of decades ago, this integration (read invasion) of social media in our daily lives was beyond our imagination. If not all, most of us are followers of someone on one or more of those social media platforms.
While others have millions of followers. Needless to say, social media plays an important role in personal communication as well as in shaping our perception as we interact with other individuals and build a social network. Beyond that, it is used to grab and propagate information for academic, business, political, and entertainment purposes.
In a nutshell, the impact of social media is beyond the perceived and observed changes in the information landscape. The key to social media invasion in our lives lies in its electronic speed and unprecedented magnanimity of global attention. Taking advantage of that, political leaders and activists use social media to propagate their agenda, so much so that it has become a common tool for political propaganda.
Social media platforms are often flooded with fabricated or fake information. Like it or not, certain popular news agencies and popular social media influencers are also accused of spreading fake information using their social media accounts. Along with the authentic information, the misinformation and disinformation in social media are often multiplied to build fake narratives.
Social media influencers in a grou.