Problem
Disinformation has become a weapon in political discourse amongst vested interests with hidden agendas and the voting public.
In her 2019 Ted Talk, Journalist Carole Cadwalladr asserted that the Brexit vote was an infiltration of lies spread online, in serious breach of electoral laws, with no evidence of the crime committed as Facebook refuses to release examples of the ads used.
Cadwalladr also claimed that Mark Zuckerberg had repeatedly refused to front parliamentary committees in the UK and take responsibility for his platforms inability to police the spread of active disinformation and its role in undermining the political process of modern democracies.
There are also assertions as to the source of the funds used for these campaigns, and whether these further breached campaign finance laws.
A database of the lies that were spread does not exist and no one knows the extent of the Facebook ads that certain demographics were exposed to.
The ability for UK courts to enforce the laws contained in the Representation of the People Act 1983 is completely void in this new form of subversive campaigning.
Solution
In order to counter people’s susceptibility to disinformation, the different demographics targeted in subversive campaigns need to be better informed to determine which materials they are exposed to are factual and which are not.
The best incentive to educate is a financial one.
The establishment of a company (should a government be unwilling) that encouraged the general public to send in Facebook ads that were political in nature in return for a financial reward could be a way of securing a database of ads that were, historically, only available in the vaults of Facebook.
This should have an informative effect on the public by transforming their susceptibility to misinformation into active investigation of what is right and what is wrong (“send it in and see if they’ll pay… if they do, it’s wrong!”)
This hypothetical company could then determine which ads were in breach and where they were targeting. They could then send this information on to the affected parties to determine a legal course of action.
In order to fund this operation, the database could engage in contracts with major political parties and have them on retainer. In exchange for the service, the parties themselves would be able to see exactly what misinformation was being spread in which demographics and act accordingly.
A cooperative market response such as this could be one step in a positive direction to secure pollution and corruption-free democracy.
This story is part of an idea creation series inspired by Ted Hope. The purpose of this series is to promote discourse amongst entrepreneurs, artists and indeed anyone for the betterment of the community at large. You are free to use these ideas as you please.
