Global Risks Report 2025: Disinformation Tops Short-Term Threats
Why in the news
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 placed false and misleading information at the head of near-term global dangers. Commentary in April 2025 examined what this means for India.
Key facts
- A global risk is an event able to hurt a sizeable share of people, global GDP and natural resources.
- Drivers: AI-generated content and deepfakes, algorithmic bias, polarisation, falling trust in media, misuse of social platforms by political and non-state actors.
- India has nearly 900 million internet users; Chinese disinformation campaigns have been reported since 2017.
- Meta’s possible rollback of fact-checking could worsen the problem.
Indian disinformation by theme
| Theme | Share |
|---|---|
| Political | 46% |
| General issues | 33.6% |
| Religion | 16.8% |
Responses
- EU’s Digital Services Act is a benchmark against disinformation and foreign interference.
- India banned 300+ Chinese apps; election-time tools included the Shakti fact-checking collective and a Deepfake Analysis Unit.
Way forward
- An India-specific Digital Services Act: platform risk assessments, ad transparency, safeguards for journalists and fact-checkers, non-discriminatory moderation.
- AI supervisory boards, algorithmic transparency and more cybersecurity research.
- Media literacy drives, independent research on FIMI, and global cooperation, without harming free speech.
Exam angle
- Publisher: World Economic Forum.
- Terms: DSA, deepfakes, FIMI.