That statement is not a bad analog to what has already happened in the real world. A palantir is just a long-distance communication device not unlike a computer hooked up to the internet.

If people are using them just to share information and keep in touch, they’re fine. It’s when that power ends up in the hands of the wrong people that suddenly everything goes to shit. You can’t trust anything you see there anymore, and there is misinformation being spread that is meant to sway the hearts of good people towards evil.

Not that it’s a relatively new concept, though. When Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, his real-world parallel was propaganda spread over the airwaves via radio. The actors and the methods haven’t changed between then and today, only the medium.