Misinformation creates a false narrative, Holness says

GOSHEN, St. Elizabeth – Prime Minister Andrew Holness has argued that the “intense scale” of disinformation spread online and in the media is a threat to democracy.

“There is so much misinformation about what the government is or isn’t doing that the average person who spends an hour on social media or listens to the radio while driving, or has the opportunity to scan the headlines, the information you receives is largely incomplete. Some of it is completely inaccurate and a lot of the information, especially in terms of where it comes from, is designed to mislead and create a false narrative,” Holness said in Goshen, St. Elizabeth, on Friday.

“There has never been a time in our history when disinformation, false narratives and outright lies could be manufactured and spread on such an intense scale as today. Therefore, the average person consumes information that is not necessarily accurate,” Holness said.

Addressing his audience at the National Housing Trust’s handover ceremony for 256 housing solutions in phase one of Friendship Oaks, Holness said the misinformation could influence people’s decision-making.

“If you are going to make decisions rationally, you have to make decisions based on information and if the information you receive is inaccurate, it will lead to irrational and inaccurate decision making, which would be a challenge to our democracy, if people make choices (based on ) on false information,” he said.

“… As citizens, as persons, who will participate in our country’s democracy, we cannot reduce these serious issues to fun memes and serious and critical conversations to less serious attempts to understand the problems we face,” he added.