MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) – The world and Belarus are living in the era of post-truth when honest people are slandered, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in his report at the 6th Belarusian People's Congress on 11 February, BelTA informs.
According to the head of state, a person spending too much time in social networks, forums, media channels becomes an Internet-addict. “People lose connection with real life and social skills. It is even worse that they lose analytical thinking because the context and essence of things going on around them are shaped by social networks, messengers and search algorithms. You know who operate them. It does not happen uncontrollably – people's minds are in the hands of Internet giants whose services are eagerly used by secret services of various countries,” he remarked.
The president also mentioned a term which is used by specialists to describe this phenomenon – “digital dictatorship”. It means control, blocking of unwanted people through the management of data sources. Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled that it affected even Donald Trump whose accounts were blocked.
“We are living in the era of post-truth where honest people are slandered and rascals become heroes with impeccable biographies,” the head of state added. “Coronavirus is, of course, an unrivalled leader of pseudo facts. During the first wave of the pandemic, anonymous online channels posted about dozens of thousands of COVID-19 victims in Belarus. They wrote about ‘overloaded hospitals', ‘hospital workers lacking PPE', ‘patients lacking ventilators and tests'. In the time when the state mobilized all tools for the fight against coronavirus.”
