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The truth is often difficult to find in the modern era, especially on the internet. While the Internet was envisioned as a tool that could be used to educate, connect, and familiarize people with other groups, it has instead devolved into a tool that is often used to spread MIS and disinformation in countries around the world. AI-generated videos, photographs, and speeches have misled millions of people already, and that number only continues to grow as time progresses. American oligarchs like Elon Musk intentionally spread misinformation on social media platforms that they own and use said platforms to influence other democratic governments and elections. Entire genocides, such as the genocide of the Rohingya in 2017, were amplified and organized by algorithms from Facebook, which drove violence and misinformation targeting the Rohingya people, which led to tens of thousands of deaths. And yet, against this backdrop of immense violence and political upheaval, these oligarchs escape without any punishment and, in some cases, even benefit from the chaos. Elon Musk, for example, is almost worth $500 Billion, with an 83% increase in his wealth after the election of Donald Trump. Major newspaper outlets in the United States have been forced to cut their endorsements of political candidates, change their taglines, and even not run cartoon pieces critical of their owners. The immense political biases in these papers are evident and has led to massive declines in membership and readership for major newspapers like the Washington Post, which recently added a new mission statement*, going from “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to “Riveting Storytelling for All of America”, which is incredibly ironic considering that their oligarch owner, Jeff Bezos, killed an endorsement of Kamala Harris by the paper and also killed a cartoon which criticized him and other major oligarchs.
A cartoon that was rejected by the Washington Post showed Jeff Bezos and other major American billionaires and corporations kneeling before a statue of President-Elect Trump. (Ann Telnaes)
In the modern era, truth is a very fickle and challenging subject to define. The truth can be changed, modified, or fictionalized by the wills of citizens who hold economic, political, and literal influence over much of the American government and people. Thus, I believe that the “truth,” as we know it, isn’t much of a factor anymore. Instead, I think we live in a “post-truth” society that either does not care about the truth in any given situation or modifies the truth for someone’s benefit. Now, yes, the truth still matters; however, it’s extremely difficult to tell the truth. Take, for example, the wildfires that are still ongoing in Los Angeles (as of the time of writing). These fires have devastated the city’s people; however, they have been mainly overshadowed by rampant political maneuvering and misinformation spreading on major social media platforms. I personally watched a video of the famous Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles seemingly being consumed by the flames of the fires. However, when I opened the comment section on Instagram, someone pointed out that the video was AI-generated. The video had been up for several hours and was not even tagged as misinformation (Meta, the parent company of Instagram, recently removed fact-checking altogether from their platforms). On social media, the likes of Elon Musk have spread conspiracies about the fire, blaming it on the hiring practices of the Los Angeles Fire Department, such as the Department being led by an openly gay man or on individual firefighters who are not straight. His main political ally, President-Elect Donald Trump, has blamed a protected species of fish in San Francisco for being responsible for water shortages while combatting the fires. He also blamed DEI practices in the LAFD. These accusations are all directly wielded by wealthy individuals, including one who owns an influential social media platform. The truth is actively distorted by the Oligarch class and for their own partisan political benefit.
An AI-generated image showcasing a wildfire behind the famous Hollywood sign, which was widely spread on Instagram before being taken down. (Author Unknown)
However, these people are not the only cause of the post-truth era: the AI generation is a major culprit. Platforms like ChatGPT, InVideoAI, and others have led to AI-generated videos and images of natural disasters, political scandals, and other topics going viral online. Millions of people have viewed these videos before they have been taken down, such as my previously cited example of the Hollywood Sign. Political leaders make images of their opponents to criticize them, such as the time when Donald Trump started sharing AI-generated images of Kamala Harris in a Communist uniform while also accusing her of being a socialist. Elon Musk has used AI-generated images to criticize political opponents and also has often used them as his profile pictures. It is likely only a matter of time before these images, instead of being used as simple jabs at political opponents, will instead be used to depict their opponents committing crimes and other unflattering things, which could lead to major electoral changes. Already, we have seen AI-generated images depicting a survivor of Hurricane Helene holding a small puppy, which was used by republican pundits to criticize the Biden Administration’s handling of the disaster, even though the image was fake. Facebook, which has experienced a massive decline in usage over the past several years, is now flooded with thousands of AI-generated photos, videos, and advertisements, primarily political in nature.
*The publicly facing tagline for the post is unchanged, but they have a new internal mission statement.
*A Facebook was a database of student faces maintained by a select group of elite American universities, which likely served as inspiration for the name of the Facebook platform.
Sources
Abby Schultz, Barrons: Elon Musk’s Wealth Approaches Half a Trillion in Post-Election Surge
Bharath Sivakumar, Feedough: The History of Facebook
The Snapper 