Misinformation will be India’s greatest threat in next two years, reveals report

NT Bureau, Agencies

New Delhi: Misinformation and disinfor mation pose the greatest risk to India ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election and over the next two years, the World Economic Forum said in a report recently published.

The other major risks for India in the next two years could be infectious diseases, illicit economic activity, inequality and labour shortages, the organisation said.

The report said that misinformation could “seriously destabilise” the legitimacy of governments in countries where elections are slated to be held in the next two years, including in India.

India’s 1.4 billion-strong population will head to polls this April to elect the 18th Lok Sabha.

The Global Risks Report – based on a survey of 1,500 experts in academia, business and government – assesses various types and varying degrees of risks faced by global economies over the next two and 10 years.

The report mentions five categories of risks: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.

“Misinformation and disinformation” is a sub-category under technological risks.

The report gives the example of a BBC documentary examining Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which was taken down by X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube last January at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Partyled Union government to highlight how “a crackdown on real or perceived foreign interference could be used to consolidate existing control”, even in mature democracies.

The report also warns that artificial intelligence-driven disinformation campaigns are becoming increasingly hard to detect.