Undercurrent

For most New Zealanders, political violence has always been something that happens in another country.

Now, as we embark upon an election campaign, it’s a clear and present danger in Aotearoa.

Mis- and dis-information is rampant just as the 2023 election campaign comes into view. It has even seeped into mainstream media, like RNZ.

It frequently fans racism, sexism, and anti-semitism. It foments hatred and division.

People close to it are really worried about where it’s taking us.

There are the physical threats and violent acts. And then there is the corrosive impact on our democracy.

This is Undercurrent, an RNZ series on misinformation.

On this page, you’ll see and hear about the experiences of people who have been active in conspiracy theory networks. Experts explain what’s happening. And political leaders speak frankly about how it’s altering our democracy.

You can listen to the full story in a seven-part audio documentary here or on Sundays at 7am on RNZ National. You can also subscribe via Spotify, Apple, iHeart or wherever you get podcasts.

Episode 1: The Landscape

What does the misinformation problem look and sound like? And how big of a deal is it in Aotearoa, really?

Listen to episode one by hitting play below.

The unknown threat

^{Climate Change Minister James Shaw. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King}

What is Telegram?

^{Dylan Reeve, author of Fake Believe: Conspiracy Theories in Aotearoa. Photo: RNZ}

Episode 2: The Gateway

For people drawn in by seemingly benign mis or dis-information, things can escalate quickly with conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.

Listen to episode two by hitting play below.

How genocidal rhetoric slides into online conversation

Donna Carson, researches political dissent and extremism

“A term that a lot of white supremacists use is ‘re-migration’, which is a polite word for genocide. And that's how they play with language. So if you're an observer to that, and you don't know what that means, you think: ‘Oh, that's not a very nice idea’. You wander on, but you don't know that undercurrent underneath it. So that's how they get away with peddling ‘one policies’ or kind of ‘upholding Western culture’. Or, you know: ‘what's wrong with being white?’ Those kinds of Trojan horse campaigns are very hard to challenge. If you do challenge them, then you get this social justice diatribe coming back at you. Or humour to deflect. They're very good at using humour: ‘I was just joking’. Or: ‘Oh, no, that's not what I mean at all’. So they're very hard to nail on some of their rhetoric, which is the point.”

^{Senior lecturer at Massey University Matt Williams. Photo: RNZ}

^{Indigenous human rights activist Tina Ngata. Photo: QIANE+co}

^{Sanjana Hattotuwa. Photo: Supplied}
^{Sanjana Hattotuwa. Photo: Supplied}

Disinformation researcher Sanjana Hattotuwa

“What I see has already happened is that society has become more intolerant. And specifically, it's the violence around the negotiation of difference. That is measurably worse today than even when we started to study it. And for me, as a foreign student from when I came into the country, this is a very angry country right now. And I'm a person of colour in a very white country and a very white city. And I think all of us have stories around the structure of racism in this country. But it's suddenly this permissiveness online, to be racist against Māori, against people of colour, against immigrants, against anybody who doesn't look like you and you don't want in the country.”

^{Paul Spoonley, sociologist and co-director of He Whenua Taurikura, the National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. Photo: RNZ}

^{Anke Richter, journalist. Photo: RNZ}