Early steps to trace and block the trolls who spread fake news | Open door | Paul Chadwick
For those journalists who seek truth and take seriously their role to facilitate democracy, it is imperative to expose deception and masquerading voices
Fakery has long infected public debate in democracies, especially during election campaigns, with effects hard to gauge.
In the UK in 1924, the fake “Zinoviev letter” fuelled a Russia scare different from today’s concerns. It is thought to have greatly harmed the then Labour government’s chances of re-election when the letter was reported as authentic in the Daily Mail just before polling day.
Technology has made the threat of fakery greater today. Widespread disclosures are no longer made only by mass media, whose claims are necessarily public
