Elon Musk. Photo: AFP / BEATA ZAWRZEL
The rise and rise of misinformation and disinformation, and why it's not a good idea to just leave the problem in the hands of the government.
We're on the brink of a "tidal wave" of misinformation.
No one knows the size of it, but there's a warning that leaving it to the government to sort out won't work.
In the year of local government elections, expect computer generated content where the sources and authenticity are murky; more complaints about the political statements; and more polarisation.
Experts who spoke to The Detail about the rise and rise of disinformation and misinformation in the era of US President Donald Trump say New Zealand lacks a single body that monitors and regulates the flow of information - but it would be dangerous for the government to take full responsibility.
"It's a tricky design thing because as soon as you say 'this is our co-ordinated strategy' and government's a part of it, you very quickly get back into this programme where you're asking government to surveil public communications of the population in the name of keeping people safe and fact checking ideas," says Tom Barraclough, co-founder of digital technology think tank Brainbox Institute.
"That's uncomfortable from a human rights perspective and from a public trust perspective," he says.
Canterbury University law professor Ursula Cheer says three key factors are leading to a rise in disinformation and misinformation.
The least surprising is the growing power of the "tech oligarchs" such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and X's Elon Musk, who want as much freedom as possible to publish whatever they want on their platforms.
X (formerly Twitter) and Meta's cancellation of their fact checking teams means that anything can be published, says Cheer, a media law expert.
"Whereas in the past, there may have been some attention paid to hate speech or racist material or other material that attacked diversity and those sorts of issues that are of concern to most democracies. That must mean that there's going to be less correct factual information proliferating on the platforms."
The rise of AI and "hallucinations" or mistakes being made by the likes of Chat GPT is a second factor behind the growth of mis and disinformation, she says.
The third is the shrinking local media alongside a drop in trust in mainstream news. Last year's annual AUT Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report showed trust continues to decline rapidly and news avoidance is increasing.
Cheer says the proliferation of fake news and misinformation and disinformation is not being managed well in New Zealand.
"But there are attempts going on and the government is concerned about it and some work is going on that could be relevant," she says.
Cheer says there is a mosaic of regulation such as a code book under the Broadcasting Standards Authority that requires balanced and accurate reporting, and the New Zealand Media Council which also deals with accuracy, fairness and balance. But both regimes depend on complaints being made after publication and only apply to mainstream media.
Other work underway is piecemeal and slow.
The Law Commission is working on whether our hate crime laws should be changed, but a final report to the government is not due until mid next year.
We're still waiting for the refreshed school curriculum and whether that will include more digital literacy.
And when it comes to tackling the tech giants for compensation to our news media for use of their stories, our government has stalled a bill and is now watching how Australia does it.
Barraclough says it is time New Zealand stepped up to the international response to mis and disinformation but it needs the "whole of society" - academia, community groups, industry, independent Crown entities, non-profit organisations and government.
"I think we've had this approach for a while now where we're just little, old New Zealand at the bottom of the world and nobody really takes an interest in us and all the stuff that we read about in the news is happening somewhere over there and doesn't really apply to us.
"I think that's naive and there's plenty of indicators that things like disinformation campaigns and foreign influence campaigns are perceived as being legitimate tools by state and by non-state actors. What we really need is an approach that we're ready to detect those things."
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