In 2011, Julian Assange, the cofounder of WikiLeaks, from house arrest in the UK, expressed his views on the potential for this chaos to then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Google ideas director Jared Cohen.
By
Nur Hidayati
·7 minutes read
KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI
Gojek and Tokopedia officially announced a merger agreement through the formation of the GoTo Group on Monday (17/5/2021).
For business entities, the development of information technology has continued to overcome limitations to enlarge opportunities. The abundance of information creates a "" of ideas as well as a limitless drive for innovation.Products are designed more precisely to respond to needs, the markets are expanding, the services are faster. The way we navigate the sea of information, consumption patterns and business strategies evolves as we adapt to technological development.
However, at the same time, the flood of information also presents challenges. For consumers and businesses, such an abundance often makes it difficult to find information that is truly useful, relevant and right when needed.
On the one hand, consumers are struggling with a “tsunami” of offers for goods and services. These various goods and services may indeed be the ones that are needed. However, not a few are designed to systematically inflate desire, without awareness of capacity.
On the other hand, businesspeople must manage the market and the public, which consist, among other things, of individuals with multiple “personalities” – in the virtual and real realms – and even algorithms on social networks.
Amid the abundance of information, a big problem arises because of the dissemination of information to deliberately manipulate public perception – disinformation. There is also the dissemination of information that contains the truth but is intentionally separated or removed from its context so as to cause perceptual distortions.
The more options for accessing information, the more interested parties can manipulate the information ecosystem.
In 2011, Julian Assange, the cofounder of WikiLeaks, from house arrest in the UK, expressed his views on the potential for this chaos to then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Google ideas director Jared Cohen. He noted that as things became more and more open, complexity was formed, because so many people – and entities – could hide what they really did in complexity (The New Digital Age, 2013).
Trust value
The question that needs to be constantly asked by businesspeople is how much trust is worth. Impressions and sensations may be created in a relatively short time, for example by advertising or campaigns. However, trust is not something that can simply be bought.
AFP/ALAIN JOCARD
(FILES) In this file photograph taken on May 16, 2019 in Paris, a man takes a picture with his mobile phone of the logo of the US multinational technology and Internet-related services company Google as he visits the Vivatech startups and innovation fair. - France\'s competition regulator fined Google 220 million euros ($267 million) on June 07, 2021, after finding it had abused its dominant market position for placing online ads, the latest move by European authorities to take tougher stances against US tech giants.
The reputation and credibility of brands take years to build. Unfortunately, disinformation can damage a brand’s reputation very quickly, even in a matter of hours.
This is reflected in the 2019 Brand Disinformation Impact Study by social intelligence platform New Knowledge, which involved 1,500 consumers in the United States. It found that 75 percent of respondents had been exposed to disinformation about a number of brands through social media.
In fact, trust in a brand or producer is a determining factor for consumers to conduct business transactions. After losing trust in a brand, 42 percent of respondents said it would take three years or more for the brand to reenter their circle of trust.
Some 84 percent of these business entities felt threatened by rumors or hoaxes triggered by social media.
On the corporate side, the threat of disinformation is illustrated in the Annual Fraud and Risk Survey by Kroll for the 2019 to 2020 period. This global survey was conducted by the business intelligence agency on 588 large companies in 13 countries. Some 84 percent of these business entities felt threatened by rumors or hoaxes triggered by social media.
The global survey, which specifically explored corporate views on the risks of social media, was undertaken by Kroll to respond to the increasing number of corporations becoming victims of fake news, which is mainly spread through social media. These various forms of disinformation hit sales and the value of the companies\' stocks in a number of countries.
The Financial Times reported prior to the release of the Kroll survey that Metro Bank in the UK had to try hard to win back customers after its shares fell 11 percent in May 2019. This was because of rumors circulating on social media that the bank was about to collapse.
In early 2019, the management of investment firm BlackRock in the US became the target of hoaxes alleging that its top management had reported that the company had the potential to be abandoned by its biggest investor.
Another example, Infibeam Avenue, a financial technology company in India, lost 71 percent of its market value in one day in 2018. The damage was solely due to false reports circulated in traders\' Whatsapp messages.
Strategic options
The recommendations compiled by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services titled Protecting Brands from Malicious Misinformation (2019) notes that in the midst of this disinformation pressure, many corporate leaders still rely too much on the ability of technology to detect damaging content in the digital realm.
Kompas
(FILES) This file illustration photo taken on November 22, 2019 shows the logo of the online lodging service Airbnb displayed on a tablet in Paris. - Airbnb and DoorDash make their stock market debut this week as part of a "unicorn parade" capping a busy year for hot startups going public. The startups known as unicorns -- valued in the billions -- are poised to take advantage of a market hungry for young businesses promising fast growth, with some taking advantage of lifestyle changes due to the pandemic.
Businesspeople are also believed to still rely too much on online media and the companies\' own platforms to control the problem of disinformation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and various types of software may be able to do away with some hoaxes before they spread widely. However, the Harvard study emphasized that only humans could truly understand the nuances, such as dialect and cultural context, that could change the meaning of a message. Only humans can teach AI to recognize information crimes. That means that technology remains limited as a tool.
In August 2020, the Forbes Communications Council published a business strategy formulation that was considered an option for businesspeople to combat hoaxes. One of the important strategies was to have a clear response plan. This was based on the awareness that business entities could become targets of disinformation at any time.
This response plan would enable companies to react appropriately and quickly because it only takes a matter of hours for a hoax go viral and have damaging impacts. A speedy corporate response needs to be supported by continuous and consistent efforts to build public trust in corporations, even when it seems no threat is lurking.
It is indeed mandatory for corporations to always monitor conversations and news related to their brands. When misleading information is found, it is necessary to make corrections based on facts and data.
What is no less important is the fact that corrections also need to be made by involving relevant stakeholders, including those considered to be sources of disinformation or who may be exposed to such disinformation.
In many cases, one effective way to respond to false narratives is through testimonials from consumers of the goods or services.
Kompas
A Wounded Iraqi man stands outside his damaged shop on September 10, 2012 at the scene of a bomb attack which hit Baghdad\'s Shiite Muslim Ur district the previous night. A wave of more than 30 attacks across Iraq killed 88 people and wounded more than 400 on the weekend, with security forces and marketplaces among the targets.
Of course, the principle of transparency needs to always be upheld. In the longer term, transparency is part of efforts to build corporate credibility and trust.
However, holding on to data alone is not adequate. Business entities also need to show concrete forms of empathy.
“Your audience wants to know that you feel what\'s happening. Heart and head go hand in hand,” said Joan P Hammel, a business communications strategy practitioner who is also a member of the Forbes Communications Council.
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