When social media drives the narrative

WE have a country, a state and a nation. To me, a country is just the geographical setting of mountains, rivers, trees and the soil we walk on plus the waters of rivers, lakes and seas. A state would be the system of governance and the machine of economics as well rules and regulations guarding the people.

A nation is the software of the state and country. A nation begins when people agree to a common origin of that state and country – and, I believe, also agree on a common destiny.

It is with this last notion that I think we have a problem. For I believe that when we start to mistrust one another, when race, faith, and culture become the basis of mistrust, we risk losing our nationhood.

We are no longer “we the people”. We have become us and them within our own geographical borders.

When is a family not a family any more? When one member feels he or she is above the others. When any mistake a family member makes innocently is treated harshly with a “sorry no cure” attitude.

When one or more members belittle other members and incite others to join them to put these “enemy others” in their proper places.

A family ceases to be when its members feel hatred for each other. A family exists no more when mistrust exists in some members for every little mistake made by other members.

I have observed that when a mistake is made involving racial and religious issues, three things quickly follow after that sow mistrust and incite hatred among our communities.

Firstly, there is a “report” by a social media influencer who doesn’t know any details or background or context of the situation. Before any sense and sanity can be established, the wild fires of hatred have already been fanned.

Next a politician or a religious figure will seize on the issue, calling for all sorts of reactions – ranging from boycotts and demonstrations to the extremes of a “holy war” – without caring about the what, when and why of the incident.

Then some important personality will add his or her voice, and the circle is complete.

Finally, all the people upset by these three reactions will demand their pound of flesh.

This is what I mean by a “sorry no cure” attitude.

One mistake and you walk to prison or worse. We have become a country that tolerates no innocent mistakes, that scorns acts of forgiveness, and that thrives on using racial and religious justification for hate when there is no such involvement.

Hatred begets hatred. Mistrust breeds even deeper mistrust. All this while facts, context, and whether the accused has a history of doing wrong are ignored.

Social media and its artificial intelligence-driven algorithms is said to breed hate according to famed academic-philosopher Yuval Noah Harari. He postulates in his book Nexus (2024) that AI encourages algorithms of hatred and works tirelessly to promote it.

Why? Because humans love to hate more than they love to love or feel compassion.

Hate and ignorance are easy to sell and generate lots of views for profit, for fame, for political dominance.

Once upon a time, the hate and ignorance of one person was slow to gain traction and its harm could usually be arrested before critical mass was reached within society.

Nowadays, with the Internet and powerful AI as engineers of social media platforms, hate can be spread within seconds and minutes to reach millions.

How did we ever get to a point when still wet-behind-the-ears youngsters – who are not even close to being experienced enough in life to make any judgements – can influence opinions and manipulate feelings about any issue? What insanity is this?

Whether a racial or religious issue is accidental or strategically planned, algorithms do not care two sen.

The AI churns and churns, and viewers click and cluck like agitated chickens in a barn.

If we let social media reign supreme at the hands of shallow-minded influencers, bigoted preachers, and opportunist politicians then we might as well give up on any notion of shared nationhood.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University.

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.