Roger-Luc Chayer (Image generated by AI – Gay Globe)
For years, social media users have complained that the main players in the field allow individuals or pressure groups to post anything they want, creating a vast amount of misinformation. This contributes to misleading readers, especially the younger ones, who get their news from platforms like Facebook, X, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and others. The problem has become so severe that even some governments hostile to our democratic countries are using these tools to incite mass reactions or influence election outcomes.
The method is simple: create a large number of fake accounts on Facebook or elsewhere, identify real media accounts, social groups, or interest groups, and flood them with violent and outraged comments. The goal is to make the topic seem important because it generates highly aggressive reactions, all entirely artificially, with the aim of destabilizing and manipulating public opinion.
As a result, since most readers and users read these comments and interventions without questioning their legitimacy or sources, we are witnessing unprecedented waves of indignation. Those who simply wish to use their social media pages to communicate with friends, family, or promote their activities often find themselves at the center of controversies they do not wish to engage in, but feel they have no control over. However, this is not true!
Here are a few examples:
Last week, an individual from northern England murdered three young girls who were taking dance lessons and injured several others. Immediately, far-right manipulators on social media accused immigrants, Muslims, and refugees of being behind the murder. In reality, the 17-year-old responsible for the attack was born to Rwandan parents who have no connection to Islam and are not refugees. This was enough to unleash the legitimate anger of the population. Hundreds of English people then rushed to a hotel in the city of the murders, primarily housing refugees awaiting residency, to vandalize the building and attempt to attack the innocent refugees. Several days later, order has still not been restored, and these false claims circulate via social media, inciting local anger against an innocent population.
The terrible homophobic debate regarding the staging of the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremony has gone so far in social media comments that the director, Thomas Jolly, had to go to the police to file a complaint for threats, harassment, and public insults. And he was not the only one. Several members of the team criticized by ultra-Christians and the leaders of the French far-right, as well as groups from several other countries, have had to seek police protection due to threats received on social media. And once again, no one suspected that China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea might be behind these fake accounts and comments, aiming to create discord and chaos in Paris…
Since Céline’s performance at the Paris 2024 Games, thousands of rumors have circulated claiming she made a mistake that ended her singing career and that she announced her definitive withdrawal due to the seriousness of the accusations against her. The thousands of messages announcing the catastrophic end of Céline’s career come from accounts with names as ridiculous as « Easy and Delicious Recipes, » « Happy Moms, » or « Eternal Truth » — you’ll agree, all excellent sources for spreading news!
Worse still, there are thousands of comments from gullible people who believe everything they find on the web and send their sympathy messages to Céline or express their sorrow about what is happening to her without even reading the false text or knowing what it is about. Because that’s the problem: gullibility…
What can be done to counter this misinformation?
1- Always verify any information circulating on Facebook or other social networks, remembering that almost all publications are false, designed to artificially generate visits or manipulate your opinion on a current topic. The U.S. government and the European Union are currently investigating several social networks for their tolerance of misinformation, resulting from a simple desire to generate higher revenues. They turn a blind eye to fake pages or fake commercial accounts because there is money to be made. Always try to corroborate the information you see with a more serious media or government service.
2- When a site or news seems clearly ridiculous or exaggerated, and it keeps coming up even if you know it’s false, you can report the site to Facebook. To do this, go to the top of the post, where you’ll find the three small dots (…), and report the post according to the violation you see. It may involve violence, hatred, false information, or a fake account. Don’t hesitate to do this; it’s by flooding Facebook, Instagram, TikTok with reports that they will eventually remove this content.
3- Another important way to combat the spread of false information or hateful comments after a post on your Facebook page is to disable comments. By not becoming a tool for spreading fraudulent or offensive comments on your own page or in response to one of your posts on another page, you can disable comments. To do this, go to the corner of your post, at the top right, click on the three small dots (…), and select « Who can comment on your post? ». You can then choose not to allow comments or to limit them to only your friends on your page. This way, you will block trolls who want to use your posts to spread anything.
4- Finally, if you want to act as a citizen media and post messages or contributions without allowing any comments, you can automatically close the door to external comments. To do this, go to your social network settings and select the option that blocks all comments on your posts.
It is important to know that by actively combating the spread of false information, you contribute to cleansing the web by harming fraudsters, forgers, deceivers, and other manipulators. This is what harms them the most.