According to a study by Gartner.Inc, starting in 2022, the majority of individuals in mature economies will consume more false information than true ones.

This figure is indeed quite striking, but there is a simple explanation for this: while trust in traditional media is declining, social networks became nowadays an increasingly important source of information.

I’m informing myself through social media, and I’m doing fine!

I’m sure you are, but undoubtedly, the rise of Fake News raises concerns over the Internet's and social media's role in modern democratic societies. For example, remember in 2016 that man who walked into a Pizza place with a rifle to investigate a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton.

Ok, well that is an extreme example, what is your point?

Well, let's put it simply: there is a point of tension on social networks between freedom of expression and regulation. Social media platforms miss an adequate regulation (which is not a criticism, but an observation). It is precisely this gap that leaves room for Fake News.

Fake news and rumors have been around since the dawn of time.What's so different today?

The problem today is that fake news is becoming a very profitable business. With clickbait, cloaking, ad farms, or identity theft - digital deception is now used for profit.

And what’s different now is that the gutter press has financial incentives for spreading shit on the web. The worse thing is that Artificial Intelligence (AI) (e.g., deep learning, machine learning, natural language processing) is a widely used tool to increase productivity and impactful content.

So that’s where we’re at: advanced technology automatically produces and diffuses even more convincing shit. Great.

So do you suggest censorship is the solution?

Absolutely not.

And before moving on this sensitive topic, let's break down simply the different types of Fake News:

• Mis-information: Information that is false, but not created to cause harm.

• Mal-information: Information that is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, organization, or country.

• Dis-information: Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization, or country.

Here, we’re going to focus on dis-information. Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) can help to fight badly-intended media.

Since blockchain systems use a decentralized, immutable ledger to record information in a way that’s constantly verified, the technology can offer greater transparency to the lifecycle of content. It can be a solution to restore trust online.

CERTIFY FROM THE SOURCE

First, Blockchain helps certify the source and other important information of the media (captions, locations, consent to be photographed, copyrights, and other metadata). This gives the reader more context and confidence in what they are reading.

Truepic is a company that certifies the provenance of photos and videos, securing the media at the source. A hash of the media's data is directly registered on the Bitcoin blockchain. This allows anyone to verify where content is coming from and how it may have been manipulated on its digital journey to the end consumer.

CERTIFYING THE SOURCE IS ONE THING, BUT HOW TRUTH IS PRESENTED IS ANOTHER

As we explained in the intro, social networks are driven by click-based ad revenue, and even reputable publications are increasingly incentivized to prioritize engagement over clarity. Blockchain would also be a solution to distinguish credible journalistic outlets from interest-driven propaganda machines.

A 2019 study proposed a blockchain-based framework for the detection and mitigation of fake news. They introduced the concept of Proof-of-Truthfulness (PoT), where any node in the network can verify whether the content is or is not part of a secured blockchain. It would work as follows.

• Upstream, content creators would have a reputational score register, based on their history and the truthfulness of their content. The certified creators would have their articles/creations secured on the blockchain.

• Downstream, when the information is used by other media, an automatic system would verify the integrity of the information. If the content has not been modified for clickbait / malicious purposes, a Smart Contract would validate that the information is being used rightfully.

CRYPTOCURRENCY AS AN INCENTIVE

Finally, who says blockchain says cryptocurrencies. At the end of the day, the strongest incentive is money. This is why clickbait and fake news are all about.

Several startups have tried solutions built on blockchain that offer a mechanism to automate payment for content that is verified according to predefined quality standards. Using Smart Contracts, Civil wanted to financially compensate users with crypto-currencies for publishing accurate information, as well as charge fees if they did not meet community standards.

Civil, as well as other similar startups, have now failed, because A) designating stable tokenomics is very difficult and B) it’s hard to put into the competition a newly introduced cryptocurrency with already existing “clickbait ad-revenue real money”.

Let’s face it: tackling dis-information will take more than technology alone.

While blockchain has a lot of potential to enable greater accuracy and transparency, there is nothing inherently trustworthy about the technology itself — at its core, blockchain is simply a recording mechanism. No technology will ever fully solve the underlying challenges of establishing trust between people, nor eliminate the underlying human motivations for profit and political gain that drive disinformation in the first place.

But let's imagine, although we can create a secure system, where the sources are certified - would that be a game-changer? How many links in this Newsletter have you opened so far?

Blockchain has the potential to make a big difference in the fight against disinformation — but it can’t solve everything. Thus, blockchain is only one piece of the puzzle. The political and legal sphere must move forward with the technology.

Because social media won’t.

The veracity of their information appears to be sometimes negotiable for the sake of turnover growth, as the competition is increasingly tough. They need to keep traffic on their platforms, and that leaves the door open to clickbait and disinformation. These social networks are less consistent in developing and enforcing policies around disinformation broadly, often citing the importance of free speech - which they are ultimately right about.

Thus, many laws have been passed to protect against fake news - and in particular against deepfakes during elections. This is the case for example in the USA, where the legal framework against pornographic deepfakes is moving in the right direction (96% of deepfakes are pornographic, and 100% are against women). By coupling these measures with the potential of blockchain, then these laws will be all the more efficient.

In conclusion, Blockchain has enormous potential to fight misinformation and is a building block for creating a trustworthy web. However, this technology is only a tool, and a useless tool if misused. Thus, the legal, social and political framework must progress as well to unleash the powerful and high potential of this new technology.

Please let us know if you have some feedback, any subject you would like to speak about here, or if you know anybody doing something great with blockchain, or if you just want to say hi!

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