“The real opposition is the media”stated Steve Bannon in 2018, while serving as the White House’s chief strategic adviser during Donald Trump’s first term. “And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sc@…”. Bannon led the way and now Trump is back in the presidency with his new boss, his dear friend, Elon Muskowner of social networking platform X.

“Now you’re the press”Musk told his loyal followers on Twitter. Like Bannon, Musk despises the media and is content to muddy the waters: more than half of his campaign posts were deemed “misleading,” according to CBS. Both understand that in today’s world, the only thing that matters is the narrative…

From the UK to the Philippines, the political use of tools like Facebook and WhatsApp has led to an unexpected political upheaval. But this upset is no longer unexpected. It is now the norm. The…flood of toxic misinformation that swept Spain after the more than 200 deaths in the Valencia flood disaster is a chilling confirmation of the world Bannon and Musk envision.

Misinformation is spreading uncontrollably through mobile phones, social networks have become toxic and the media has lost credibility. Citizens, polarized and disoriented, point the finger at the other side, accusing it of lying. We now have a truth tailored to everyone!

Time

The clash between the propaganda machine and the rumor mill has created a new reality: choose what you want to read. In fact, some media have already written the story you want to believe.

Disinformation experts agree that what happened in Spain after the deadly floods is no coincidence, but rather the inevitable result of the new information system reshaped by the Bannon doctrine over the past two decades. After the floods, Spain saw as many lies in two weeks as it did during the two years of the pandemic.

The disinformation engine now has more power, but it also has more followers, more people who are used to consuming this kind of content. And, unfortunately, young people’s relationship with reality and information is increasingly shaped by this confused and fragmented landscape.

It is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment this new warped universe began, but it began to take shape long before people – naively – spoke of… “post-truth”. Bannon, the head of the far-right website Breitbart, recognized that there was an audience hungry for alternative realities.

Disinformation

It drew lessons from 2014’s Gamergate, when a sexist mob harassed women in the video game world via social media. The man who would later become Trump’s campaign manager realized that political battles can be fought online by fueling hateful racial behavior and flooding the networks with troll armies.

During these years, digital platforms—from Google and YouTube to Facebook and Twitter—won the battle for attention over the media. They also claimed almost all of the advertising revenue. While the press was bleeding to death from closures and mass layoffs, the few newspapers that survived, desperately trying to stay afloat, turned to the production of “viral” content for social networks. Meanwhile, the same tech companies unleashed the power of algorithms on users to fuel their exponential growth, without considering the consequences. And then, the incomprehensible began to happen.

It is telling that one in four Americans believe that the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 26 people died, was staged, after Alex Jones began touting this “sick” conspiracy theory in 2014 to increase his income . In 2016, a man armed with a gun broke into a pizzeria in Washington, D.C., convinced that a pedophile ring run by Democratic politicians was hiding there: the infamous “Pizzagate.” Flags of followers of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that spread and developed into a heretical cult through social networks, waved in triumph during the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021.

The uproar these scandals caused is now a thing of the past. “I’m tired of apologizing”Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last September. Meta, X, TikTok and YouTube revoked policies banning post-pandemic misinformation or extremist speech following the attack on Capitol Hill.

The disinformation industry is always eager to fill information gaps with their own narratives. By the time journalists present the true facts, the unseen forces behind these lies have already moved on to something else. Even more horrible…. There is still much to learn. On October 29, Steve Bannon was released from prison after four months behind bars for contempt of Congress. He said he feels “stronger” than ever and is focused on Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election. Trump won again, but this time it was no surprise…