13 Aug 2025 Needed: An antidote to misinformation in the Caribbean

Ricardo Brooks

It was with some interest that I noted that the 2025 Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum identified misinformation and disinformation as the most pressing risk facing the world over the next two years.

Admittedly, at first glance one could be forgiven for questioning that declaration. After all, there is the evolving threat of climate change, increasing levels of economic insecurity, and the ever-present threat of war and geopolitical conflict. Yet despite these very real concerns, there is a certain wisdom in seeing misinformation and disinformation as existential threats to human interaction and, more specifically, public discourse.

I do not mean to be hyperbolic, but insofar as increasing levels of misinformation and disinformation risk polarising society, I believe we ought to take the threat seriously. This is particularly true for small societies in the Caribbean that have been bedevilled by political systems that have not always delivered in the way they ought to for the people of the region.

That failure has left generations of citizens disaffected, disillusioned, and dissatisfied. The consequence of this cynicism and malaise is a population of fertile minds in which the seeds of misinformation and disinformation can take root and grow.

It is exactly because Caribbean people are so vulnerable to the distortions of information that we need to be most vigilant against this threat. Already we are seeing the polarising effect misinformation can have on the body politic and society at large.

In Jamaica, for example, there has been an explosion of vloggers on YouTube. While not all of them are seeking to poison minds, a great deal of them are quite content to share political conspiracies, health myths, and security lies. These outcomes threaten the credibility and reliability of many of society’s most cherished institutions. We should take it seriously.

Unfortunately, many governments, civil society actors, and the media are only now waking up to the potency of this threat because it is effectively sidelining them in the battle for ideas. Many of them are losing what the Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, has identified as the battle for the mind.

Incumbent governments are becoming prone to sustained misinformation campaigns that imperil their re-election prospects, civil society advocates are being burdened by conspiracy theories about their funding and motivations, and the media are facing a financial fight for eyeballs and ears in an increasingly splintered environment that seems to prioritise the sensational over the factual. In that sense, bad faith actors are incentivised to dabble in the cesspool of misinformation and disinformation.

Havens of misinformation and disinformation

The situation is further complicated by United States’ technology giants, which see value in maintaining on their platforms online communities where lies flourish and truth dies. Some of these communities have become havens of misinformation and disinformation. Instead of having to confront facts, already disaffected and disenchanted citizens can now wall off themselves in these spaces and wallow in their misery and discontent, all the while being reinforced in their beliefs by misinformation.

That is a dangerous cocktail for any society. We have already seen in sections of Europe where that kind of outcome leads to violent radicalisation and in some instances anti-immigrant nationalism. Other developed societies have also seen the rise of fringe groups who are sometimes led to extremes by the misinformation they consume.

The Caribbean has not been immune from these risks. To that end, Facebook’s recent announcement that it was abandoning independent fact-checkers in favour of user moderation is but another step along the path of disregarding the legitimacy of the truth. These technology giants are stepping back from their duty to combat misinformation and disinformation at precisely the point where there’s a need for more vigilance, not less. The rise of artificial intelligence will result in an entirely different beast, with as many threats as opportunities.

Despite the bleak outlook, I do not believe all is lost. In fact, it requires an acceptance that if so-called “Big Tech” is not going to assist us to combat bad faith actors who weaponize information, it is important for societies across the region to start finding ways of at least arming our populations to be more discerning in the information they consume.

We need to see proper, structured media literacy campaigns as not just nice-to-haves, but need-to-haves. We need to start training our people from a young age, particularly those who are digital natives and must navigate technology’s many complexities, how to think critically about information and content they consume.

Caribbean societies must see the threat of misinformation and disinformation for what it is and combat it now. Regional communication scholars need to do more to make their scholarship relevant to the deficits faced by our people. It must be an all-of-society approach.

I’m not convinced that the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation has to be the norm. I’m not convinced that generations of young people have to grow up being strangers to the truth. That does not have to be our rule. In fact, I would much rather it be the exception.

Ricardo Brooks is a Jamaican journalist.