The words disinformation and misinformation are used to refer a complex phenomenon around the globe and in Sri Lanka.

“Disinformation is false and deliberately created information to harm a person, social group, organization or country and predominantly to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. On the other hand, misinformation is information that, while false in nature, is not created with the intention of causing harm, although it has the potential to do so, since it is incorrect or misleading information. ”

These two words are often used to refer to multiple issues – false information; misleading content; fabricated content; manipulated content; content with motivation to propagate an inaccurate fact or idea being created and distributed widely mainly to influence and mislead people. This is a prevalent reality during elections, with the main purpose of harming the critical thinking of voters at large.

Disinformation and misinformation are increasingly becoming a serious threat for Sri Lanka’s post-war democracy, not only in relation to elections, but also to peace and reconciliation, and overall nation building.

With regard to elections, it is worth quoting Nalaka Gunawardena’s observation in his column to “The Morning” newspaper. He noted that “elections are meant to give voters a chance to make informed choices about their representatives. That basic premise is threatened by distortions, half-truths, fabrications, misinterpretations, and other abuses of facts.” (22 September 2019, The Morning).

As observed by the columnist above, it is true that this year’s election experienced an overwhelming number of disinformation and misinformation efforts, not only in the social media sphere, but also amongst mainstream media as well.

It is evident that hundreds of sponsored and independent social media pages functioned in support of both the main candidates, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mr. Sajith Premadasa. Hundreds of paid and non-paid, organized and disorganized, coordinated and voluntary, Facebook and YouTube pages were to be seen in support of these candidates. Looking at the trend of content dissemination, it was evidenced that several organizing groups were promoting disinformation and misinformation, manipulating citizens and influencing their voting behavior negatively.

It is a common belief that social media promotes purposely misleading content on the internet. However, what was surprising during the previous presidential election was that several mainstream television stations and newspapers promoted deep fake and deliberately manipulated content, which then questions the status of media professionalism and fair journalism in Sri Lanka.