The nation will head to general elections in a little over a year. Between now and the election, most will see vigorous campaigns and use social media to get their messages through.

There will be a lot of misinformation spread through Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. We are already witnessing it. The problem is that fake news and misinformation spread like wildfire and faster than the truth.

The political saga that unfolded in the last week with the sacking of Laauli Leuatea Schmidt from the cabinet is one such case. From the moment the former minister was headed to the police and even after he was charged and accepted the sacking, a plethora of fake news has been spread.

A team of people hiding behind fake profiles have started populating social media streams with stories and comments that are not true. Some of these have even targeted journalists who were doing their work, to report on the facts.

There will be an attempt to spread misinformation through social media as the former minister will towards trial. There will be even more when campaigning for the next election starts. Why? Because people believe fake news on social media rather than relying on credible news sources.

A good example is the misinformation on the charges laid on Laauli. Many people were made to believe that it had to do with allegedly causing the death of a teenager in Vaitele. This is not the case and Police Commissioner Auapaau Logotino Filipo has cleared this.

This is dangerous as it can lead to instability. During these trying times, people must be able to differentiate between the truth and misinformation. The COVID-19 experience should have been enough to wake many but people are gullible.  

Misinformation evaluates individuals' susceptibility to false information, and their likelihood to spread it to others. The elderly, youths, those active on social media, and those with fewer years of formal education appear to be the most susceptible to misinformation.

In 2023, when a tourist submersible lost contact during a dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic, the international rescue operation caught the attention of millions around the world. The rescue failed, and on 25 June 2023, a video on TikTok broadcasted the screams of the passengers in their final moments. In just 10 days, the video had 4.9 million viewers who heard the five victims’ last cries.

Except they hadn’t. The audio wasn’t from the submersible at all – it was from the video game series Five Nights at Freddy’s. But the TikTok went viral fast, and it spread a lot further than the fact-checked truth.

Social media’s evolution as a distributor of news has had serious consequences for what counts as journalism and what gets conflated with the truth. On social media, news is entertainment. The move towards social media as a source of news has allowed misinformation to flourish.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States have found that fake news can spread up to 10 times faster than true reporting on social media. When explosive, misinforming posts go viral, their corrections are never as widely viewed or believed. The outrageous fact that blasts through audiences is louder, stickier, and more interesting than a follow-up correction. In the race between the false but interesting and the true but boring, the interesting story wins.

As the clock ticks down to the important court cases slated for 2025 and finally the general elections, there will be a barrage of fake news and misinformation on social media. For stability and maintaining law and order, trust only credible news sources.