Lack of digital media literacy and cyber crimes
The spread of fake news on social media has become a major source of anxiety recently. In a world where incorrect information has the potential to shape the future of countries and significantly impact individual and societal health, this worry is well-founded.
One common explanation for why some individuals believes false information they read online is that they lack technological literacy abilities, a vague phrase encompassing the knowledge and abilities necessary to function effectively in the online world.
According to this line of reasoning, those who aren’t tech-savvy are more likely to fall for hoaxes and spread them online.
Therefore, those with lower levels of computer literacy may play a pivotal role in the propagation of falsehoods.
It is obvious that this is the case. Few studies, however, have looked into whether or not a person’s level of digital literacy affects their propensity to fall for fake news.
Even less is known about how people’s digital literacy could be related to the content they post online.
We aimed to do this since we are interested in the psychological aspects of internet disinformation and could find some interesting connections there.
Very few people are ready to take on the information landscape of the internet with confidence.
The broad acceptance of online disinformation has been linked to the worldwide lack of digital media literacy, prompting reforms in both educational policy and the development of technological infrastructure.
Despite the importance of being able to identify fake news when it appears online, there is a dearth of empirical data connecting digital media literacy to this skill.
Many factors, including the lack of understanding among the police who handle such instances and the way parents and children, adapt to devices and technology, contribute to the incomplete nature of the data we have about cybercrime.
The sophisticated hackers are often located in another country, yet they may access victims’ bank accounts from a distance by tricking them into disclosing sensitive information.
The victims may not realize they are being targeted until it is too late and their money has been stolen.
Many different types of people, from programmers to eager company insiders who would do things like plant malware on a network for payment, makeup today’s financial crime rings.
The supporting example about the research is that about one in ten individuals were victims of fraud or cyberattacks in the previous year, thanks to the proliferation of online e-commerce, finance, social media, and entertainment and the myriad of techniques invented by tech giants for grabbing data and increasing market share.
There has been a dramatic increase in social media and internet literacy among Pakistan’s urban youth over the past two decades.
As of January 2020, there were 76.38 million web members in Pakistan, according to a Global Digital study released by We Are Social and Hootsuite.
However, only 37 million of these people were engaged on social media. Experts in the field of information technology believe that the country’s rapidly expanding social media and internet user base has also contributed to an increase in incidents of cyber harassment, but the vast majority of these incidents go unreported.
About 40% of Pakistani women who use the web have been victimized by harassment on social networking sites or messaging applications like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger, according to the most recent survey by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), a Pakistani advocacy and research NGO. 72% of female users of social media in Pakistan have experienced cyber harassment but are unaware of legal protections against it, according to the survey.
Fake news, or tales published online that are not based in reality. Potentially, they come in the form of false information or disinformation.
It’s possible they’ll spread false or misleading information. The term misinformation is commonly used to describe false or deceptive claims that spread online without any malicious intent.
Technology and social media are used to make fake news sites appear legitimate. Organizations and political parties may try to trick you by sending you advertisements that seem like news stories.
While cybercriminals employ automated programs called bots to propagate false material via a network of fake social media profiles.
This might give the impression that many individuals have shared a fake narrative, which can lend credibility to the falsehood.
Misinformation spreads with the assistance of fake social media postings and accounts. Real journalists will sometimes publish this as fact.
When anything reaches the level of a news story, the distinction between truth and fiction begins to blur.
Strong, often biased opinions are presented as facts in fake news. It can also target people who are most likely to share these views and persuade them.
Algorithms, smart pieces of software, amplify this so-called echo-chamber effect by directing you to articles that are similar to those you’ve already shared.
As a result, these algorithms are a common target for hackers. Many examples of false news are harmful, malicious, or even dangerous, despite appearances to the contrary.
The risks of spreading false information are obvious. If someone’s home address is made public, for instance, they may be in danger.
Subtlety characterizes the risks that might arise from spreading false or misleading information.
Those who produce fake news do so with the intention of altering readers’ worldviews and, by extension, their actions.
Someone else controls your thoughts and actions if you trust bogus news. Furthermore, publishing and spreading false news might result in legal repercussions in some jurisdictions.
The spread of false or misleading information can potentially threaten computer systems. Hackers looking to steal your information may use fake news stories as access points.
Recognizing the potential dangers of false news and how to avoid them is an important part of identity management and data security.
Consideration of privacy before posting photographs or personal information on social media is one strategy to raise consciousness about cyber security.
One can take precautions to safeguard their privacy on social media by deciding whether to make their posts visible to the public, just friends, or only those they have explicitly accepted as friends
—The writer, a cyber security expert, is contributing columnist.
