Censorship: A Reaction to Disinformation on the World Wide Web

Abstract

The Internet and the popularization of smartphones in the 21st century have given instantaneity to information. By these same digital means –imbued with the power to influence politics, the market, culture, and health– disinformation blossoms. Censorship, understood as the suppression of content and/or suspension of users on social media, has been used as one way to combat disinformation on the Web. This drive to sanitize digital networks carries inherent risks. In the context of ‘Infodemics,’ investment in user’s media education should be encouraged. As methodology, the phenomenon of disinformation on the Web and the efforts to curb it were researched in both scientific literature and in Brazilian legislation. To combat disinformation, the users’ education (in a sense of enabling them to filter, understand, and interpret the information that they gather) should be the main goal, as entrusting this task to third parties could bring undesirable side effects. Meanwhile, platforms, traditional media, and governments pose as ‘Guardians of the Truth.’ The social impacts of disinformation and of the efforts to suppress false content on the Web are discoursed in this paper through usage of MapReduce Text Mining. The paper concludes that disinformation takes on many connotations –from humorous appeal to manipulation–. As long as the users’ informational competence has not been developed, both the platforms as well as governments must act to minimize the undesirable effects of this phenomenon.