Fake News

The use of social media in activism efforts leads to the spread of misinformation regarding the movement and a change of the motive behind it. As easy as social media is to use, it is also extremely easy to spread false or misinformed information. "Fake news", which in this aspect is essentially information about a protest that is not in aggreement with the movement, is all over social media platforms, resulting from either a form of bias or some sort of misunderstanding. If an activist is attempting to spread awareness and information about efforts to take, someone can easily take this information and twist it, while posting about this new content they created and having people perceive it as true. This is a more cynical way of misinformation spreading, usually done for sabotage or a person of differing opinions countering their argument. This can also happen more innocently, with people perceiving the information given the wrong way and seeing something agree with their own values when it really does not. This produces people who become a part of movements but are trying to make change not even in accordance with the actual goal of the protest.
A movement in Singapore saw similar results when the protests fell victim to this misinformation. When examining how the protest was defined on social media between the organizers and the protestors, they saw that the ideas came across as similar but the particular motives were different. This was due to the lack of understanding that protestors experienced when reading about the movement on social media. They saw that they were "merely responding" to the things that were being posted and they were not completely able to see the actual issues the movement dealt with. People were viewing the protest in terms of their personal goals or however they specifically understood it, leading to them now spreading information that isn't technically coinciding with the movement. This lead to an eventual weaker movement and much less effort to have changes being made. (Goh)
On the opposite end of misinformation spreading, Brazil had their own difficulties using social media enabled activism during their presidential election due to opposing sides deceivingly spreading slander. A far-right president was elected as their supporters worked hard to post lies and wrong information regarding the left-wing candidate. (Beauchamp) Incidents like these are very common currently as it is so easy to spread a lie online and very hard to prove it not true after it has been seen by millions. This leads to people not being able to believe anything they see or read online as it can just be another opposing side trying to work against them. With cases such as these, social media proves to be an outlet of weakness for activist movements.
Comments:
Robert Grey-
Although I agree with your statement that misinformation can be spread online, I do think that this also has the possibility to be a good thing for movements. For example, if people are maliciously spreading wrong information about the protest, they are still spreading awareness of it. If somebody were to see this wrong information and actually aim to become involved, they would most likely be doing more research about it and not fully listen to one person online. Their original awareness of it, ironically, can come from this wrong information which therefore may lead to more participation in movements.