12 Jan 2026 Trust, civic engagement, and shared responsibility in the digital age

Germany’s far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland recently relaunched a youth wing called Generation Deutschland. One of its posters portrays a young blond Aryan woman instantly recalling – for those who have not forgotten 20^th century European history – Hitler’s League of German Girls and its theme of racial purity.

As Ashifa Kassam noted in The Guardian, 27 December 2025), it’s frightening “how far-right groups have seized on cultural production – from clothing brands to top 40 music – to normalise their ideas, in a process that researchers say has hit new heights in the age of social media.”

Relentless and repeated exposure to violent images of all kinds, to sensationalism and provocative memes, to racism and misogyny in the form of thinly disguised humour and reality shows seem to have blunted society’s ability to react and respond to such assaults on human dignity.

Similar trends have been noted in many countries North and South, where social media (unevenly regulated for hate speech) are used to extol the prejudices and antics of politicians and “influencers” anxious to indoctrinate young people and to spread fake news.

Media manipulation and propaganda are the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes the world over, with Putin and Xi Jinping leading the charge. Today, they are also embedded in the media ecosystem of the USA, as pointed out by Kyle Chayka in (The New Yorker, 5 March 2025):

“In recent years, the social-media landscape has become fragmented, and right-wing audiences have coalesced around Truth Social and X. The respective owners of those platforms, Trump and Musk, are now running the federal government while continuing to cultivate their online echo chambers of MAGA glorification and viral mistruths, and, with the popularization of generative A.I., the misinformation is no longer confined to chaotic tweets.”

Rather than lamely lamenting the lack of oversight and regulation – both of which are necessary, costly, and often difficult to enforce – systematic attention and resources should be given to awareness-building and education at all levels. Old-fashioned media education used to begin in primary schools and continue through secondary schooling. The British Film Institute in the UK, the French ministry of Education and Youth, and the Ministry of Education in Argentina are just three examples of national institutions which prioritised media education.

Today we need digital media and information literacy for children, adolescents, and adults: critical understanding of how digital technologies infiltrate all aspects of society, and how they can be manipulated, controlled, and weaponised to undermine democracy and the rule of law. As the Global Disinformation Index reported (June 2025):

“A sustainable, long-term solution must involve a whole-of-society approach, engaging policymakers, private companies, and civil society actors in efforts to promote media literacy, transparency, accountability, and institutional resilience. As Germany’s case illustrates, the integrity of democracy in the digital age depends not only on defending against disinformation but on building societal structures that foster trust, civic engagement, and shared responsibility.”

Taking the AFD’s racial purity poster at face value is tantamount to blind acceptance of Truth Social’s propaganda. Digital technologies have been embedded in society since the 1990s, Artificial Intelligence since the 2010s. Stronger and more effective regulation and accountability are long overdue.

Photo: All is not as it seems in this image, in which today’s racist ideology reflects the past. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)