Democracy, soft power, and social media
The United States, throughout history, has a liberal stance especially when it comes to information. From the first amendment, freedom of the press, and decentralization of the internet, information is viewed a commodity available for all.
The internet was not always the information superhighway we know it as today. In fact, there is an entire generation that grew up with the internet and have no idea what communication was before social media or AOL. In the 1960s, the US Department of Defense funded what would be the first prototype of the internet with the creation of ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, as a government weapon to help win the Cold War. Following this the internet was primarily used as a way for scientists and researchers to communicate, until the birth of the world wide web and social media.
Communication and information have always been used as a weapon in war. The only thing that changed is the medium in which it is shared. But with the advancement of technology comes the change in manipulation tactics and conflict between state and non-state actors.
Before writing this I started to wonder how the spread of misinformation and use of cyberwarfare affects a countries soft power. This is a very deep subject so I’m going to try to keep it as simple as possible
“Soft power is the ability to get what you want through attraction and persuasion rather than threats of coercion or offers of payment,” explains Joseph S Nye.
Soft power, compared to hard power, is not about attacking the values of others but rather using information to influence and alter someone’s perception, relating specifically to foreign publics and policies.
It is a countries culture, political values, and foreign policies. How attractive are we to you in these three areas? For instance, in 2019, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and the United States were the top five ranked scores when measuring soft power.
Social media has become a dominant source for the spread of misinformation and disinformation through the use of bots and malicious software. It is being used by non-state actors in an attempt to spread misinformation, for example Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, but this didn’t actually help Russia’s soft power. If anything, these tactics hurt their overall soft power. In 2016 Russia was 27th in the world, according to SoftPower 30, in 2019, they fell to 30th. SoftPower30 attributes part of this negative view of Russia to its constant spread of disinformation in the West. Russia became less attractive to the rest of the world.
China protects itself and its government by controlling and limiting what its citizens can see and say on the internet. Russia uses the internet in an attempt to influence Western ideologies by spreading mis- and disinformation, seen in the 2016 election and continuing with the Trump presidency.
I am in no way an expert. I am learning these concepts and ideologies as I go trying to understand and unpack the history of all of it and coming from a household that didn’t talk news or politics, I’ve opened a can of worms and then ignored said can until they are going in every direction possible. There’s a lot to unpack.
My general thoughts when it comes to democracy, the internet, social media, and a countries soft power is this.
The ability for misinformation and disinformation to have an affect relies on the individual parties, the readers, the intended audience to look at what they are given and use common sense to evaluate and seek more information. With the internet available at the touch of our fingers, our ability to differentiate what is true, what is false, and what might make sense but seems a little sketch has been compromised. Now rather than logging-in to chat with friends from college, or meet new friends, because of non-state actors, every friend request comes with a level of evaluation. When authoritarian governments decide to limit or control what their citizens do with the internet, are they doing it for the good of their country? Or are they doing it to not piss off another country. What are the motivations? When it comes to cyberwarfare will we ever really understand the motivations?
The Trump presidency has affected the United States soft power because social media gave him a platform to express national messages with emotion. We all have that friend or friends on social media that only posts when they’re emotional about something; a break-up, an argument with a family member, a new lockdown order. No argument can be won by being volatile and angry, it just doesn’t work. I don’t know that we have an answer to the ‘fake news’ and dissemination of misinformation because we are in uncharted territory with a policy leader who can’t control his emotions. My only hope is that some of the damage can be repaired and we, as a culture, and as a presence in the world can once again become about the better of everyone. Not ‘America first.’
