Disinformation is a digital threat that intensifies during election periods; where political discourse flares up on social media and where true information clashes with false information. A conflict characterized by manipulation, dishonesty and deception that destroys social trust in reality and the public interest is polarized between the search for truth and the exposure of lies.
Freedom of expression and information is a civil and political right that confirms the democratic quality and political pluralism of the rule of law. In the digital environment, democracy is based on the principle of neutrality, which is activated when the digital citizen expresses, informs and communicates through free, immediate and spontaneous interactions on social networks, creating public opinion trends that take the pulse of the effectiveness of digital political discourse. An efficiency that has turned disinformation into a tool of manipulation and deception to weaken political opponents, polarize society and reinforce a political cause, which undermines personal autonomy and affects democratic decision-making.
The election campaign for the presidential binomials will be moved more than a month in advance
Achieving freedom of information and the right to information requires a citizenry aware of this political manipulation. The transmission, reception and exchange of information through digital platforms obliges citizens to develop a digital culture based on critical, verifiable and reliable thinking, which encourages the formation of public opinion based on truth, on reason above all. emotion and respect for pluralism a thought that strengthens democratic deliberation and blocks the viral effect of misinformation by imposing a collective monologue towards delegative democracy.
The right to true and sufficient political information and the duty to verify the reliability of information create a well-founded political opinion which enables citizens to vote in an informed manner, a competent citizenry to evaluate, compare and decide on public affairs, and at the same time stops the spread of inaccurate, misleading or deliberately false information that harms democratic quality, undermines political processes and deepens citizens’ mistrust of the political class.
Electoral calendar: key dates for the 2023 presidential election in Ecuador.
Argentina has just taken an important step in the digital governance of the digital ethics commitment that candidates, platforms and media have signed with the aim of promoting fair democratic debate in the next elections and thus mitigating the damage that false information produces in the process. election and democracy.
Preserving the digital space that strengthens deliberative virtual democracy requires its own citizen voice, informed and autonomous, free from manipulation and surveillance; an active, responsible and collaborative public opinion that turns information into a civil heritage protected from the digital immediacy of misinformation and imposes standards in public debate. A society that exercises its power and political control when #PauseVerifyShare. (OR)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
