Back in 2020, when normal life took a turn to the abnormal, there was one constant that helped people around the world. And that was the internet. A space that kept everyone connected, vigilant, and informed. Social media had long gone past its initial phase of simply keeping things “social”. Now you had news, real-time updates, community organisation, and so much more. And in a span of 5 or so years, all of that is gone.
On February 28, the US and Israel coordinated joint attacks on Iran promting a retaliatory response from Iran towards Israel and the US airbases in the GCC. Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE became involuntary targets. While the Iranian government mentioned that their aim was to strike US military bases, several oil fields, airports, and other civilian spaces were struck. Witnessing it from Dubai, the situation offline was worrisome, but the situation online was absolute pandemonium.
AI videos, memes, rumours of the next places being targeted, and straight-up misinformation about the situation were burying real-time updates from those who were actually witnessing what was happening. The initial strike itself became disputed online, along with the range of involvement the GCC had with the rising tensions. Memes about World War 3 began to make the rounds as if real people weren’t actively being displaced and killed. And above all that, the algorithms themselves seemed to be stuck in time. On X/Twitter, the best you could get after constant refreshing was tweets 5 hours ago. And everything was steeped in doubt, confusion, and fear, making those who need the updates the most spiral into panic and paranoia.
Platforms online have become unusable and unfortunately for us, it wasn’t an accident; it was by design. Termed ‘Enshittification’ by Canadian author Cory Doctorow, it’s a process in which online platforms deliberately decline in quality over time. It looks like poor moderation and incentivising those online through social media engagement. The quality decline comes from prioritising profits over user experience. Hence the AI videos. The ragebait tweets. The unnecessary conspiracy theories. And the blatant misinformation that grabs you hook, line, and sinker to engage in anxiety.
News channels aren’t helping so much either. With certain exceptions, many have put aside journalistic integrity for sensationalism, again prioritising engagement over the truth. Just recently, the UAE and Qatari governments put out official statements on Bloomberg’s inaccurate reporting regarding the two countries’ defensive capabilities. Whereas online, citizens and residents in affected countries have to continuously explain themselves and the situation so that more people don’t fall for the fear.
The case has gotten so severe that government officials, at least here in the UAE, have instructed their citizens and residents not to engage in rumours online but to get information through official government channels. While this was already the case for most of us, it is a shame that the supplementary news that we used to get online has now been enshittified.
The internet, created for connection, has become yet another tool for destruction. The algorithms have been hit, and we are virtually lost. And they didn’t even need drones to do it.
