Caught in the Fake News network. The expert predicts a disturbing scenario for Poland

Anna Mokrzanowska, WPROST.PL: The right wing panic around migration policy. Recently, we had a lot of cases of social media posts suggesting the alleged “migrant flood” – repeatedly pulled out of context. These types of photos or recordings quickly become Virals. Especially that some deputies, e.g. Dariusz Matecki, promote them.

Wojciech Kardyś, Social Media and Internet Communication Expert: These are not posts, they are emotional grenades. Anxiety, anger, sense of danger – these are currently very strong internet currencies, for which you buy coverage. Mainly fear, which (unfortunately) clicks perfectly.

If something evokes strong emotions, platform algorithms (especially Facebook and thicket) read it as a signal that it must be important, they push it further and increase the range. Algorithms do not know what is real, whether something is ethical. For them, it is only important whether it clicks (or not), how much reaction, comments or shares.

What’s more, the system rewards what divides, because “polarization = commitment = advertising profits”. If something divides people and causes quarrels in the comments, then for the social platform it is ideal. In this way we spend more time on it, thanks to which we will see more ads. The topic of migrants perfectly “hit” the algorithm, because nothing arouses fear like “the other” or “strangers at the gates”.

In Poland, we have a huge problem with verification of content, because nobody taught us at school (and does not teach us to this day!) How to recognize fake news. Instead of checking the source, many users make a quick scroll, see a dramatic recording and immediately disclose. Because “it looks truly” or “I saw something similar a week ago.”

When I note that it is fake news, that someone gives untruth, I always get the same feedback – “Well, it could have been true, because leftists/rights are such”. This is significant nowadays, where the truth is not important, but “own truth”, in which the interpretation of the world is based on wishful thinking and extreme emotions. If something agrees with my narrative and worldview, it must be true.

Who is most susceptible to this type of disinformation/fake news?

Me, you, all. Every person who has an account on a social networking site is exposed to disinformation. Especially now, when we have bots that stand 24 hours a day seven days a week. It is estimated that more than half of the social media movement is generated by bots. We also have artificial intelligence that generates very real graphics or even whole posts.

It is said that especially the elderly are susceptible to fake news, which is only partly true. Reports say something completely different that it is a “generation Z”, it is particularly susceptible to disinformation in social media. It is not about PESEL, but about the so -called digital skills (digital competences)

People over 60, grew up in a single-track communication (television and press), but grew up during the Polish People’s Republic, censorship and double standards in informing, so they are more sensitive to media nonsense.

I remember a Facebook post by Dominika Chorosińska. PiS MP deliberately threw the graphics generated by AI (at which the fans give the hand to the “border defenders”). Despite many appeals that this is a lie and this is manipulated, she has not removed, or informed that it was disinformation. Under the post, thousands of comments (women, teenagers, parents, of all ages) supporting this graphics.

Is the popularity of this type of posts, characterized by hatred, is limited to the network only or is it translated into activities in real life and can lead to dangerous incidents?

Of course it has a gear ratio. If people feed every day by the message that “a stranger is a threat” and “migrants rape women”, then someone will finally decide to “take matters into their own hands.” Suddenly, it turns out that civic patrols were born on Facebook groups that want to guard our borders.

In a moment we will witness a situation that someone is so fired on an anti -immigrant narrative that he will eventually hurt a tourist with a darker skin color.

We must finally realize that a feeling of becoming validation to violence arises from disinformation. “They came here to rape, so we will beat them.” Such disinformation is like a virus, sprouts from a tiny tweet, infects more and more minds until he is too powerful to fight him and takes over control.

Or in the case of this type of action, like the one with the alleged “migrants”, We can talk about external interference – e.g. Russian?

Russia has been conducting a hybrid war with the West for years, in which disinformation is one of the most effective weapons (better than rockets, because it is cheaper). The topic of migration is a contemporary Kalashnikov: a simple, fatal and always working weapon.

In my debut book “Homo Digitalis”, in the chapter about fake news, I write about how Russians can confoses in our infoster. In April 2025, experts from Alliance4europe recorded 279 Twitter/X accounts, which impersonated Polish media, spreading pro -Russian rhetoric.

This is the official part of the Russian campaign, known as the operation of “Doppelgaenger”, which involves setting up false portals and accounts producing “official” news. Of course, conducive to Russian narrative. The Polish Feed Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – bots and fake news were systematically poison.

What for? Because such actions distort reality, manipulate public opinion, destroy public debate and weakens democracy. When you don’t know which voices are true, you stop trusting everyone. And that’s what they mean. Oh chaos.