Conspiracy theories on social media increased on Friday as a result of a flawed software update to an antivirus programme running on Microsoft Windows. The update affected businesses and services worldwide, ranging from banks and airlines to TV networks and financial institutions. Vice president of the disinformation security firm Cyabra, Rafi Mendelsohn, told AFP that the incident demonstrates the “volatile nature of the information ecosystem”.
Following a significant IT outage on Friday, a deluge of online conspiracy theories took flight, ranging from alarmist predictions of an impending “World War III” to fabrications connecting a group of wealthy people worldwide to a cyberattack.
Following the catastrophe, which was caused by a malfunctioning software update for an antivirus programme running on Microsoft Windows, airlines, banks, TV stations, and financial institutions were plunged into chaos. This was one of the worst crashes in recent memory.
The emergence of internet-breaking conspiracy theories on social media platforms, many of which have dismantled previous barriers to the dissemination of false information, exemplifies the new normal of information pandemonium following a significant global event.
The outage gave way to a swirl of evidence-free posts on X, the Elon Musk-owned site formerly known as Twitter, that peddled an apocalyptic narrative: The world was under attack by a nefarious force.
On X, a member commented, “I read somewhere that ww3 (World War III) would be mostly a cyber war.”
A baseless rumour that the World Economic Forum, which has long been a haven for outrageous lies, was planning a global hack was also sparked by the IT disaster.
Many posts linked to an earlier WEF film that warned of the danger of a “cyberattack with Covid-like characteristics” in an attempt to lend credence to that notion.
The video, which can be viewed on the WEF website, issued a warning, saying that cutting off millions of susceptible gadgets from the internet and one another would be the only way to halt the cyber threat’s exponential spread.
‘Sad testament’
The WEF has long been a target for conspiracy theorists pushing the idea of a shadowy cabal of elites working for private gain under the garb of solving global issues.
Also gaining rapid traction online were conspiratorial posts using the hashtag “cyber polygon,” a reference to a global training event aimed at preparing for potential future attacks.
“The proliferation of conspiracy theories in the wake of major global events such as the outage is a sad testament to the volatile nature of the information ecosystem,” Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president at the disinformation security company Cyabra, told AFP.
“What is unique to events like these is how social media platforms, forums, and messaging apps facilitate the rapid dissemination of content, allowing theories to gain traction quickly and reach a global audience.”
The trend demonstrates the ability of falsehoods to mutate into viral narratives on tech platforms, which have scaled back content moderation and reinstated accounts that are known purveyors of misinformation.
During fast-developing news events, confusion now often reigns on major tech platforms, with users scrambling to obtain accurate information in what appears to be a sea of false or misleading posts that rapidly gain traction.
‘Nefarious motives’
“This poses the larger question of combatting mis- and disinformation,” Michael W. Mosser, executive director of the Global Disinformation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, told AFP.
“The level of trust that is required to accept information from reputable sources has declined to such an extent that people are more willing to believe wild conspiracies that ‘must be true’ rather than the factual information relayed to them.”
The global outage, which brought myriad aspects of daily life to a standstill and sent US stocks falling, was linked to a bug in an update to an antivirus program for Windows systems from American cybersecurity group CrowdStrike.
Assurances by the Austin-based company’s chief executive, George Kurtz, that CrowdStrike had rolled out a fix and was “actively working” to resolve the crisis did little to stem the spread of online conspiracies.
“Combatting this misinformation with factual rebuttals is difficult, because the issue is so technical,” Mosser said.
“Explaining that the fault was in an improperly configured system file and that a fix is in process may be accurate, but it is not believed by those who are predisposed to see nefarious motives behind failures.”
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