in some parts of Nepal. Women are discriminated against and beaten, widespread violence continues, [they are charged with] witchcraft. [...] These stories are even highlighted by the news media and newspapers, mainstream newspapers, with photographs [taken] without their permission, stating that, yes, witchcraft exists. (interview, 2021) Other problems include censorship of the media through suppressive political and legislative environments. These issues will be discussed further later on in the report. WORD OF MOUTH Another important medium for the spread of misand disinformation is word of mouth. For example, Vigneswara Ilavarasan described the phenomenon in India as follows: Say my father receives a message, but he cannot interpret it. So his friends, who are supposedly slightly educated, they are the gatekeepers, and they share this information with their group of friends. Political parties, especially in this country, are able to exploit this very nicely. So at the central city level there is an IT cell of each of the political parties, and they create content and pass it down to the last level. The last person spreads it to the rest of the people offline, physically. So if you ask me what is the exact device they’re looking at to receive this information, I can say that a lot of people are looking at Twitter and Facebook; they’re receiving all this information. The next level of information is coming on WhatsApp and YouTube. We have an interesting segment of people who look at content only on YouTube. The first set of people access all kinds of platforms. The second set of people are looking at WhatsApp and YouTube, and the third set—other people—are basically dependent on people who access WhatsApp and YouTube. They are offline! But they are the ones who believe this, who follow this. For example, for [Covid-19] it was said that you are supposed to take a lot of turmeric water. So if you look at which people are using a lot of turmeric water, they are either those with a little bit of access to WhatsApp or those who are dependent on people who have access to WhatsApp. [...] At the top [are people with] all ICT devices, and at the bottom those who do not have access to ICT devices, but they’re dependent on the gatekeepers that are coming from the top. The gatekeepers can be anyone. (interview, 2021) I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH A common theme across many of our key informant interviews was that information disorder arises due to polarization and bias; people are more likely to believe information that already fits their preexisting beliefs. MOTIVATIONS FOR SPREADING FALSE INFORMATION People’s motivations for spreading mis- or disinformation are varied. Some are motivated by ideology, while others are looking to monetize clicks and will therefore promote even false content to maximize clicks. Others spread misinformation inadvertently, through ignorance, or even with good intentions. For instance, Dr. N. Tamilselvi noted that some people forward false appeals for medical donations, genuinely believing them to be real (interview, 2021). Qadaruddin Shishir from AFP Fact Check describes motives for spreading as follows: State-sponsored actors spread this kind of misinformation, opposition-sponsored actors spread this kind of misinformation, and there are some religious right-wing people who have pages or groups on Facebook or YouTube and they spread this disinformation. They know that the [information is] false but they propagate it on a regular basis. Then there are some other actors, like financially motivated actors. They have websites, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels. They get ad revenue from clicks or views. Some of them are journalists—[they do not openly identify themselves as such, but the nature of the] content [implies] that journalists [could] be behind the production of this content. They know that this is misinformation or misleading information or outright false information, but still they frequently spread it just to attract readers to their websites and channels to earn ad money. (interview, 2021) People’s motivations for spreading misor disinformation are varied. Some are motivated by ideology, while others are looking to monetize clicks and will therefore promote even false content to maximize clicks. Others spread misinformation inadvertently, through ignorance, or even with good intentions. Asia – 2 0 0