On May 21, a week ahead of the national elections, Media Monitoring Africa Communications in
conjunction with Government Communication and Information System (GCSI), hosted a webinar to issue a
general warning to alert the public about the dangers of false information.
The warning was not misplaced because false information poses serious risks to rule of law, public safety
and the right of access to correct and truthful information.
Despite the noble warning, the country learnt via credible news outlets such as radio, newspapers and
TV, how voting in some areas was disrupted by actions of people who were misled about issues. False
information picked up from unreliable sources by a few people, tend to filter through communities and
drive up emotions.
That’s what disinformation and misinformation does; it plants confusion and spark chaos, as the country
saw with the July 2021 riots.
How to tell the difference between the two?
Misinformation is misleading content, which is packaged without realisation of inaccuracies in it. It can
also be wrong information that comes through efforts to translate the original content, or through other
clumsy language errors such as poor grimmer, incomplete sentences or even misspelling.
Though harm is not intended, misinformation causes plenty of problems which are not dissimilar to what
disinformation does, despite the different descriptions.
Disinformation is false, inaccurate or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to
intentionally cause public harm or for profit.
The public needs to know about both types of false information because of the problems each create in
society. Examples thereof include eg hatred, racism, tribalism, homophobia, xenophobia and worse,
violence.
Our wish is for Stokvel Talk readers to access this information and share it with friends and families, so
that communities could be informed about misinformation and disinformation, and its dangers.
Democracies depend on well-informed and reasonable populations to thrive. The more people know
about these types of false information, the more the wider society will become confident about separating
real news from fake news.
Knowledge is power. The more people know the truth the weaker the efforts of disinformation become.
In conclusion, we strongly advise against sharing information that does not make sense; information that
sounds dodgy and untrustworthy. Doing so, gives bad information the strength to go far and reach more
unsuspecting people.
In conclusion, we strongly advise against sharing information that does not make sense; information that
sounds dodgy and untrustworthy. Doing so, gives bad information the strength to go far and reach more
unsuspecting people. The best thing to do is to delete.
The threat of misinformation and disinformation to democracy
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