Islam and Misinformation in the Digital Age: Truth, Authority, and Ethical Responsibility

Abstract

As the rapidly expanding digital media has come about, it has resulted in a misinformation like never before; which has presented a great challenge to knowledge, power and moral accountability in the modern Muslim world. The paper will briefly mention the misunderstanding that the misinformation has brought to Islamic thinking, how the online communication can misinterpret the meaning of the truth and the strength of the religion and the ethical side of information sharing. Based on a qualitative methodology that includes conceptual analysis, thematic review of 2010-2025 literature and discourse analysis of online misinformation practices, the research contextualizes misinformation in the context of the bigger arguments within Islamic epistemology and digital media studies.

The hypothesis of the article is that it is not a technical issue but a crisis of ethics and religion that cripples such fundamental values of Islam as truthfulness (ṣidq), verification (tabayyun) and trust (amana). It demonstrates that algorithmicity, speed, and availability of online tools are some of the factors that could lead to the erosion of epistemic standards and disintegration of religious authority, leading to confusion and reduction in dependence on authoritative sources of knowledge. To this end, this paper suggests that Islamic ethical model to misinformation can be proposed as it is based on responsibility, fairness and ethical online actions.

The article is a contribution to the increasingly popular debate on Islam and digital media because of integrating the Islamic ethical principles and the contemporary issue of misinformation. It concludes that the issue of misinformation can be resolved through not only being technologically conscious but also reinstating the ethical value of communication as based on the Islamic teachings.