Because in Singapore
politics, the vocal minority are able to express their views over social media,
resulting in dissidents spreading hate and deceiving readers, the ministry of
education (MOE) should start educating teenagers to be well discerning of false
information.
A worrying trend has begun, whereby people content with a
particular system do little to air their content, while discontent people take
it upon themselves to criticize the system openly, making sure their voices are
heard by many. This has led to the terms “silent majority” and “vocal minority”
being coined.
A lack of regulation results in a free for all online landscape,
where almost anything can be put up leaving the reader to be well discerning of
whatever they are reading. However, it is often difficult to cross reference
information presented online, resulting in people often believing what they
read or watch at face value. The spread of the most ridiculous articles on
social media proves that many are often unable to easily discern from false information.
The lack of regulations online as well as a significant
number of the public being unable to be well discerning of what they are
reading results in the rise of purposefully spread disinformation originating
from individuals or groups with vested interests. A well written argument based
on false information complemented with professional charts can easily sway many,
stirring up their emotions and convincing them to act. This is worrying
especially since our political leaders are democratically elected and such
disinformation can sway the minds of many impressionable voters resulting in politicians
becoming dismissed. One clear example would be the Roy Ngerng saga. Ngerng made
baseless accusations against the prime minister accusing him of
misappropriation of money in an article. This article was shared by many among
social media, which garnered him many supporters. Due to the high profile
involvement in this case, Ngerng was taken to court and found guilty of defaming
the prime minister.
However, this is not all. The nature of the online landscape
combined with the vocal minority and silent majority mean that a small number
of loud individuals can dominate the online scene, giving the ordinary folk a
mistaken impression of the actual reality. Such behaviour is apparent on online
forums, news website comments, and all over social media. Online, there are
scores of people insulting the government on everything from government
policies to politician’s salaries. If one solely looked at the online
landscape, they would come to the conclusion that Singaporeans are very unhappy
with their government. However popularity surveys and election polls show a
much different reality.
The current solution put forward by the Singapore government
is the regulation of news websites. News websites have additional perceived
reliability due to the term “news” being used, and thus clamping down on
websites that claim to be news but are indeed satire or actually merely
personal opinion is a right step forward. In this approach, the government
takes the role of deciding if the news reported is newsworthy, and if
necessary, take action to remove misleading websites. This is however a
reactive approach which does not tackle the root problem, since disinformation
and hatred can still be spread in the forms of social media such as facebook posts
and tweets which are practically impossible to regulate.
An active solution would be to educate the masses to equip
them with skills to be able to evaluate arguments and spot people who are
trying to deceive others. Once people are able to appropriately discern for
themselves what is true and what may be trying to mislead, disinformation would
not get much attention as it does today, and such information be immediately
frowned upon. It is only because so many believe false information that these
articles and posts are able to gain such popularity. One way to equip the
public with critical thinking skills would be to introduce critical thinking
classes in secondary school by the Ministry of Education. Critical thinking
helps people think and accurately choose from themselves what to believe,
through the consideration of a wide array of sources. By incorporating such lessons
in secondary school, the public as a whole whom have all been through secondary
school would have acquired such skills in the eventual future.
The problem of misleading information of the internet in the
form of misleading arguments as well as overcrowding of negativity towards the
government should ultimately be solved at its roots, by teaching individuals
how to discern what information they come across. However, using this solution
may not be so straightforward. In reality, there might be reasons for why even
the government might not want to correct the problem with education. By
equipping the masses with such skills, it would become harder to run the
government as citizens will become more critical towards their actions, and
hold them to a higher standard. In the latest World Press Freedom Index, Singapore
ranked a measly 153 out of 180, and thus giving citizens critical thinking
skills might perhaps not in reality help the government agenda.
1.Minlee. (2014, November 7). Blogger Roy Ngerng found
guilty of defaming PM Lee. Asiaone news. Retrieved from http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/blogger-roy-ngerng-found-guilty-defaming-pm-lee
2.Peace, Chiu. (2013, May 28). 10 online news sites must
follow traditional media regulations: MDA. Yahoo newsroom. Retrieved from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/10-online-news-sites-must-follow-traditional-media-regulations--mda-103906167.html
3.2015 World Press Freedom Index. (2015). Retrieved from
https://index.rsf.org/#!/
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