24 March 2024, IOL, Wendy Jasson Da Costa
MMA director William Bird said unless you get your information from a source that is known to be credible, you should be careful.
“If you see a post that makes you scared, that makes you angry, just go and check it on a range of credible sites and whatever you do, don’t share that, because disinformation loses its power if it doesn’t get shared.”
Apart from Padre, the MMA has another online platform, www.real411. org to combat digital disinformation.
Bird said it was hard to determine the prevalence of disinformation, but based on the number of complaints they receive through 411 it was clear there were a lot of people out to misinform others.
He said during election time there were standard types of disinformation such as that which attacks and undermines the credibility of the IEC.
“Not to say that people shouldn’t question the IEC or even expose them if there’s wrongdoing, but what we do see are these unwarranted attacks on their credibility. And they’ll do that by suggesting that they steal votes, or votes are pre-counted, or they’ll invent all sorts of things about the IEC,” Bird said.