The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States brought with it, amongst other things, the whole idea of ‘fake news’. POTUS is always talking about it and has done a lot to create an environment where the public now doubt whatever they read.
In the past we generally accepted that what we read in newspapers or heard on news bulletins was reasonably close to the truth, although the smart people have always been aware that every paper has a specific political agenda and that any story needs to be read with that bias in mind. But, now we have reached a stage where completely false stories are pumped out, with social media channels being the chief way of ensuring they spread like wildfire.
The European Commission (EC), according to an article published in Techcrunch, has announced that it is going to use blockchain technology in a bid to combat the spread of ‘fake news’ and its press release said it has “identified blockchain as a critical part of what it will call the Code of Practice on Disinformation, which it intends to introduce by summer 2018.”
The announcement also stated that blockchain is, “one of emerging technologies which are changing the way information is produced and disseminated, and have the potential to play a central role in tackling disinformation over the longer term.”
The EC points to the fact that DLT can aid the transparency, reliability and traceability of news on the Internet. It said:
“Innovative technologies, such as blockchain, can help preserve the integrity of content, validate the reliability of information and/or its sources, enable transparency and traceability, and promote trust in news displayed on the Internet. This could be combined with the use of trustworthy electronic identification, authentication and verified pseudonyms…”
The commission’s next step is to develop the EU-wide Code of Practice on Disinformation that will be published by July 2018.
This represents a new application of blockchain technology in a very important arena – that of the news media. We cannot underestimate the value of once again being able to know that information has been verified and sources checked. And those who claim that certain stories are ‘fake news’, as POTUS frequently does, will find it harder to do so. This could change voters’ views in elections, as well as of government policies, in the coming years. We will be able to trace the trail of truth and lies, and that will be a good thing.