Social media has completely changed the way the society gets information and it’s a cause of worry.
Today, large chunks of information are shared online and it has become increasingly easy to access any kind of information at any level of the social and cultural climate. The biggest threat in this is that this information can be tailored to achieve the set objective of the sender which has been widely used to influence political campaigns and courses.
All over the world, social media has been used to control and affect the outcome of information for desired candidates. It is now common to come across accounts on both Twitter and Facebook dedicated to influencing the course of an election as well as swaying the public opinion vis-a-vis the vox populi.
Social media could very well be decisive in the outcome of the coming general elections in 2022. Its signs are very much visible and it is easy to predict what could happen. Here is how social media could win the 2022 elections.
1. Through misinformation
This basically involves the spread of inaccurate information on the internet with the aim of affecting a certain objective. With people taking to social media like a duck to water, the number of casualties here is unprecedented.
Pseudo accounts with the names of prominent people are used to spread false information to unsuspecting social media users. The messages are tailored to directly influence the thinking of a voter or large chunks of the entire citizenry.
Even though the ‘error’ may be corrected later, the effects are usually way too heavy to welcome any telling change. With the use of Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter proving prominent in Kenyan politics, this could very well be what swings the political tide in favour of select candidates running into 2022.
2. Through fake news
For a term that has become so prominent during the reign of US president Donald Trump, Fake News can actually be used to effect a lot as far as politics and the electioneering period are concerned.
This involves the spread of incorrect or non-existent news happenings, for example, one candidate declaring support for the other or announcing a withdrawal. Again, this may be corrected later but it would already have achieved and served its purpose.
Most Kenyan politicians are very active on social media either running their own accounts or having people run them. Even with the sophistication of the use of social media, individuals are still able to create dummy accounts and run messages that have devastating effects on the consumer. I consider this a very likely outcome in 2022.
3. Through disinformation
During the electioneering period, there is a lot of false information spread to deliberately mislead the consumer. This has a high possibility of happening in 2022 as politicians look to gain leverage in the run-in to the general elections. There is no saying how this will be done but it sure will.