Misinformation & Tech Giants – Where Does the Responsibility Lie?

Trump seeded the idea of election fraud in the minds of thousands of his followers and what followed was violence.

Trump seeded the idea of election fraud in the minds of tens of thousands of people and what followed was violence.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

Video Producer: Kritika Goel

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

On 4 November 2020, President of the United States of America (USA) Donald Trump declared that he won the elections, once again alleging that the elections were rigged and the votes were stolen from him.

This is just one example of how Trump seeded the idea of election fraud in the minds of tens of thousands of people. A statement that he has repeated in his rallies, on television and on social media.

And the implication of this is what we saw on 6 January, when a mob of Trump supporters laid siege at the US Capitol in Washington DC, where Congress was meeting to certify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

But what happened on 6 January was not a result of something that Trump said just once. It was a culmination of falsehoods and misinformation perpetrated by the outgoing president time and again, against which the tech giants have acted now.

We spoke to three journalists at The Quint to get their views on the larger issue of using social media platforms and if the accountability lies with these tech giants.

Sushovan Sircar, who covers cyber policy, Nishtha Gautam, who is a Senior Editor (Opinions) and Asmita Nandy, who works at the intersection of caste and politics, spoke to this reporter about their views.

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