I start this by what I strongly believe about, one of menace to society in current situation where what propaganda is for a democracy is what violence is/was to dictatorship. ‘TOOL’
Social Media propaganda is a new fictional achievement by propagators, courtesy to, who never believe in fact-checking and get overjoyed with self suited texts/images/videos which in most of time, a feed to their hatred. Most of them want to impress or denounce their contacts and pass it further and further… the compulsive forwards goes on and on… The propagator’s job is done, who all ingested and with further shares felt as a contributor to uplift the pride of the cause, but what was the cause?
Propaganda tool has got its own history and its success in past keep the propagator’s and provoker’s agenda-hope alive to shift the focus of masses to non issues and sometimes push them to dangerous cliffs. In recent times, few middle east organisations, has exploited social media to send its propaganda and messaging out to the world and to draw in people vulnerable to radicalisation. There use to be a ministry for public enlightenment & propaganda in Germany in Nazi era and the used it so effectively, all hatred were so well projected that a large population trusting it as nationalism. Sentiments related to religion, racism, nationalism etc. are some tried and tested vulnerabilities for curators to exploit.
Fabrication of facts, situation and condition is common in our society but most of them are not serious and do not effect masses, those which are meant for larger audience and for special purpose needs avoidance and criticism.
In India, politics and political parties are main source of propaganda as they find it the most easy way to distract masses from their inability, corruption and crime. In recent few years the propaganda of political parties got platforms with dedicated team called “IT-Cell” to keep circulating fake news, morphed images, jokes, videos and fudged figures through social media. Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Youtube are preferred propagating media along smartphones are destined for consumption. Consumer-cum-participators at the end of day don’t realize that their thoughts have been contaminated and are pushed away from reality.
Humans are naturally gifted creatures with unmatched capability to rationalise but its the religious/caste astigmatism, political ego, hero worship and most importantly, hatred has marginalized them to such vulnerable state that their exploitation is an insurance to the political masters.
Some recent examples where news and reports manipulated:
Official reports using internet image to project development
Photo of Vietnamese Bridge claiming it’s in Chhattisgarh
Fake videos uploaded on social media after Champions troply final between India and Pakistan
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