Fifteen years ago, a 20-years old Pallav had a Nokia burner phone and an active social life typical of a young adult. A youth yet untainted by false hate fuelled messaging twisted and presented to younglings stirring a past in them that existed only in fantasies. A well-crafted propaganda machinery unleashed by depraved politicians willing to see their genocidal designs to any end. Pallav certainly had plenty of spirit; though one could tell the intellectual capacity and reasoning were not his strongest of areas.
Social media in its early days (2008-2012) was about looking good to the outside world and “poking” friends and someone you like online. The phones were still not smart enough to run social media on - so everyone had to do it on their personal computers. It was harmless fun designed to keep in touch with friends, share that latest gossip or ‘what was on their mind’? Pallav was a regular bloke who did not exhibit signs of indoctrination or extremism as his friends would have attested. I was one of his close ‘friends’ then until recently.
His moral character was moulded by his insular environment- making the most of his chance and later taking on the role of a full-time closet xenophobe. In a way, his character decent could be charted to internet in India - cheap and low-quality content making it easier to permeate underdeveloped psyches. The regression in Pallav’s character can be viewed under the lens of an often-repeated philosophy that ‘you can judge people by the company they keep’. No one is immune to the ill effects of bad company they keep - they can, however, apply themselves to prevent falling into a dark abyss of hate.
Perhaps the most unsettling part was the unfathomable rot festering within him: prejudices, that had curdled into something monstrous. Until very recently, I could not comprehend how his private bigotries had swollen into real-life violent fantasies, grotesque as a carnival mirror’s reflection. Fantasies of Muslims - mothers, children, poets, all being blasted into the sky over Palestine, their bodies turned to smoke and echoes, while he sat somewhere safe, grinning at the spectacle. Something unspeakable. Something that reeked of blood-lust wrapped in the respectable cloak of daily life.
How did I not see it? The question claws at me now. Him and the others like him, lurking in the shadowy corners of my so-called friend-circle their prejudices ripening in secret. I was a fool - the blind optimist, draped in the tattered cloak of ‘friendship-above-all’, failed to notice the slow poison seeping into our ranks. I chose the lie of harmony over the hard truth.
Cut to present day- Pallav is a self-confessed defender of his faith who believe they are in existential threat from a minority. His stark and yet not so shocking transformation confirms one thing above all- pre-existing biases fuelled by exposure to misleading/false and high frequency content on social media impairs critical reasoning about underlying issues. It also begs the question whether the individuals driven by impulse on social media is capable of bare critical reasoning at all? The answer may lay hidden in their early conditioning and the biases harboured. This part is difficult to quantify.
As Neitzsche warned: “he who cannot obey himself will be commanded” and most often the ones commanding is hidden from public view involving a range of actors from organised fake news groups, propaganda peddlers, foreign entities with nefarious schemes as well as people benefitting commercially from stories going viral.
Social media is the primary peddler for fake news
Information sharing has moved from slow mode of needing to be in close proximity to its audience to an increased speed and scale of social media where the message can reach millions in a fraction of that time. The barriers to spreading such information and ideas are almost non-existent today- the government of the land appears to be actively promoting disinformation and xenophobia under the garb of “free speech” often to promote propaganda to distort the truth. The citizens are increasingly prone to falling victims of false news and fiction being published as facts. It often is incredibly tedious to verify the source of such news if not obvious and completely divorced from source-based reporting that was the norm for any news to be even published.
Why we can’t stop sharing: the hidden drivers behind your news feed
Besides commercial motivations to share content online across popular platforms there are several factors outlines above. Propaganda, disinformation and fake news are key part of the toolkit used in psychological warfare to undermine group of people, target political parties and alter the public discourse over a long period of time. Democratisation of information sharing on social media facilitated explosive rise in reach to users.
In a world of monkey sees, monkey likes picture this: It’s a humid evening in Mumbai-a 27-year-old unemployed man scrolls through Instagram and pauses at a forward from his uncle. The video shows a mob chanting a religious slogan as they demolish a mosque’s minaret with a bulldozer. The caption reads: “These traitors deserve worse.” Thumbs hovers. He has Muslim friends, but he has seen dozens of posts like this, each one angrier, each one shared faster. They share it frantically with their group of friends. By midnight, the video is playing in more than thousands of phones across his suburb.
This isn’t just hating its Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) weaponised. And in India, where religious polarisation is spiking, it’s fuelling a vicious cycle of violence and validation. When verified accounts and even popular leaders posts a clip of a man being beaten for allegedly “smuggling cows” and it gathers around 50,000 likes, the brain registers: “Outrage = attention.”
Repeat this daily, and violence becomes a social script. Unrestrained.
Users like this impressionable person aren’t born bigots, they’re trained. Each forwarded meme, each fake news story carefully engineered about the “Muslim men desecrating temples” each viral clip of an angry horde congregating on mosques, reinforces a worldview. As Albert Bandura warned: We become what we consume.
The algorithm’s silo
Why share videos of Muslim shops being torched or their houses getting razed for no reasons? SCT’s outcome expectancy implies the reward for this behaviour are tangible - status, power and fear. Sharing hate content earns a nod and validation from their peer groups. Tagging powerful politicians can turn likes into real world consequences for the victims - bulldozers targeting homes and livelihoods. Platforms amplify this feeling and recommends increasingly extreme content. A 35-year-old shop owner who once posted about food prices now calls for Muslim boycotts because he has been sucked into the algorithm’s silo - for the most part or rather connected with his own deep-rooted hate validated by the algorithmic silo.
It starts with sharing violent content for “fun” suddenly spiralling into reality where people are targeted and killed. Behavioural mastery is SCT’s darkest lesson- the more a user tends to share/like dehumanising content the easier it gets. Its moral numbness forged by habit.
Low critical thinkers are prime fodder for the hate machine
In the current violent digital discourse, the erosion of critical thinking isn’t just a casualty - it’s the fuel that feeds the fire of communal violence. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) reveals how this unfolds: when users lack the tools to question, analyse, or contextualise content, they default to mimicry, absorbing and replicating behaviours rewarded by their environment.
The link lies in the absence of reflection. SCT posits that behaviour is shaped not just by observation, but by self-regulation - the ability to weigh consequences and ethics. Yet in India’s polarised climate, where algorithms flood feeds with hyper-partisan content, users are conditioned to prioritise emotional resonance over verification. Each share/like reinforces their identity as a “protector” of their faith, while the platform’s metrics (likes, retweets) signal approval. Critical thinking, which demands pausing to ask, “Is this true? Who benefits from this narrative?”, is drowned out by the urgency to belong.
This dynamic thrives on cognitive shortcuts. SCT explains that humans rely on heuristics - mental shortcuts to navigate complex environments. In a country where WhatsApp forwards outpace fact-checking, users adopt the shortcut of trust: “If my uncle sent it, it must be valid.” Critical thinking, which requires deliberate effort, becomes a luxury in the face of relentless content designed to provoke fear or pride. When a viral video claims “Muslims are hoarding weapons,” the immediate reaction isn’t analysis but assimilation: “This confirms what I already believe.” The brain, seeking efficiency, defaults to the path of least resistance i.e. sharing without scrutiny.
Fact checking over rage baiting
Yet there’s a grim irony here. SCT also suggests that behaviours can be reshaped through conscious intervention. Fact-checking initiatives, and counter-narratives that reward scepticism over sensationalism can rewire the cycle. When a user in Mumbai encounters a post about “Muslims banning popular festivals” and pauses to cross-reference it with credible sources, they engage in a form of cognitive rebellion. They disrupt the observational learning loop, replacing blind imitation with evaluation. Platforms could amplify this by prioritising accuracy metrics over engagement. Enter a “Fact-Checked” badge commanding more clout than a “rage-bait” post?
But in current ecosystem, where political parties weaponise social media and popular media platforms profit from division, critical thinking is treated as dissent. The result? A population trained to share first and think never is a tragedy where SCT’s power isn’t just to explain behaviour, but to predict a future where truth is collateral damage. The antidote lies not in blaming users, but in recognising and shifting away from the systems that profit from their cognitive surrender. Until then, every forwarded lie is a brick in the wall of digital partition.