In the world today, 22.5% of people feel that disinformation shouldn’t be placed as an issue. Was that believable enough for you? If so, you just fell for disinformation. In the world today close to 5.42 billion people use social media, with many being plagued by disinformation everywhere they scroll. (Topic: Social Media, 2024). With the rise of social media came great benefits, people could talk with each other, show their lives, but people could also talk to each other, leading to a huge increase in confusion and a blurring of lines between what was real, and what wasn’t. Disinformation is a part greatly associated with social media, with disinformation affecting people’s perspectives as well as affecting how they interact with others.
Social media helps many to communicate with friends and family across the globe; social media has also helped many to connect with others with similar ideologies. In a report about what recently occurred in Nepal (and has now been passed on to countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Madagascar, and Morrocco) they said, “When the government moved to ban 26 social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, protests erupted with thousands of young people storming parliament in the capital Kathmandu on Monday” (Ng, 2025). Social media may be a form in which people rely on it to support themselves, find jobs, and communicate with others, but is it great that we have come to a point where we can’t live without it? When you look at the real cause, it is about corruption, but at the same time, the minute social media platforms were banned, people took to the streets. So for all that social media may help with in terms of communication aspects, it doesn’t really outweigh all the problems it brings with it.
In a survey conducted by PEW research organisation they said, “Overall, about half of U.S. adults (53%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, roughly stable over the last few years” (Atske, 2025). If this is true, then just imagine how many people are getting the same feed over and over again. Imagine how many people are being pushed more towards one side in a debate or more towards the other. It’s a ticking time bomb, with more people feeling more passionate about one side, instead of being able to see the other. How many times have you gone on and been bombarded instantly with reels similar to those you just liked a few minutes ago? The matter of fact is that because of this, social media is leading to a more specific and polarized perspective.
How many times in the past year have you heard about huge riots, huge amounts of violence? When was the last time you heard of huge peaceful protests, protests that actually made a difference that didn’t involve a need, or at least a “need” to deploy security forces to monitor the situation? Take a look at how people have manipulated certain situations in real life, take a look at what happened in Katrina, where people were making up stories about gangs and looters when instead these were people in need, honest people in need. Same situation with COVID, where countless people died out of fear that the information they were reading, explaining how vaccines are harmful for health, was true. Before people counted on the words of experts, nowadays a random person can post over and over about a certain topic and people will believe them. The issue is that because of social media, all the issues of disinformation and manipulation have been amplified, with more people acting based on the words of these people, with more riots occurring, people dying, and many more joining this constant cycle. “A quick snapshot of Collective Service global dashboard data confirms that the number of COVID-19 related civil unrest events is on the rise, despite a stringency index that is globally low” (Civil Unrest and COVID-19 – Collective Service, 2024) COVID protests are something that prevented many from getting vaccines, and caused who knows how many more people to die. The riots themselves turned violent at times, resulting in many issues, all because of disinformation.
To finish it off, disinformation is often synonymous with social media, but it doesn’t have to be. There could be policies, or restrictions put in place so people don’t face more of this disinformation. If someone asked me what the leading issue in the world currently is, I would say disinformation. People will keep using social media for the rest of their lives, it is just a question of how we improve their relationship with people. How can you make sure to not fall for disinformation?
Sources:
- Statista, 2024:, https://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/?srsltid=AfmBOor1YJ44Cvn1poeRXaX8j68pXlkMe08C4IXWbVKTpf6ZNxX3Rzpl
- Sara Atske, Pew Research Center, 2025:
- Kelly Ng, Bbc.com, BBC News, 2025:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp98n1eg443o Collective Service, 2024: https://www.rcce-collective.net/data/analysis-reports/civil-unrest-and-covid-19/
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