Disinformation and Identity-Based Violence

Disinformation spread via digital technologies is accelerating and exacerbating violence globally. There is an urgency to understand how coordinated disinformation campaigns rely on identity-based disinformation that weaponizes racism, sexism, and xenophobia to incite violence against individuals and marginalized communities, stifle social movements, and silence the press.

While high-profile examples of coordinated disinformation campaigns often focus on how false narratives and fake accounts might disrupt elections, the case of Myanmar illustrates the unique ways that disinformation can be weaponized to foment fear, hatred, and violence against marginalized populations. Social media is not an inherently liberating technology but can be weaponized by governments to control the information space, suppress human rights, and incite violence.

The purposeful spread and amplification of identity-based disinformation is not just an individual expression of individual bias but instead represents the systematic weaponization of discrimination to make hateful narratives go viral. At the core of identity-based disinformation is the exploitation of individuals’ or groups’ senses of identity, belonging, and social standing.

Responding to identity-based disinformation will require technical and human responses that are collaborative, locally relevant, and community-driven. Given the extent of the harms posed by identity-based disinformation, there is a continued need to develop, implement, and improve responses.

TOP IMAGE CREDIT: A young Rohingya girl poses behind the door of her shelter in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. (Sahat Zia Hero/2023)