The fake news is a problem that several actors within the society are trying to solve. Several countries, like France are trying to ban them. YouTube recently announced it will link directly to Wikipedia to fight conspiracy theories (link). This are answers to the problem. However, I believe this isn’t solving anything, nor touching the real problem.
I think the solution shouldn’t be build between the people and the truth but around what people consider what the truth is. Trying to objectively define what truth and what is false is dangerous and won’t work in the long run.
I consider there are two main sides to the fake news problem:
The first side is that people are biased. It is really difficult to for oneself to overcome this bias. Moreover, on a daily basis people tends to watch news and ready articles that support their ideas, increasing and deepening the extremism of their view. Having an entity telling people what is right, won’t solve the problem.
The second side of the problem is inherent of the nature of the truth. Who has the ability to decide what is the truth? Should we have a ministry of truth? Should a specific group of people look for what is right or wrong? Is that the work of journalists? Or on the contrary, should the citizen be responsible for what is true or false?
I do believe if one wants a democracy as a system of government, then the ones who should be in position to decide what is true are the citizen. There shouldn’t be a ministry of truth, there shouldn’t be journalist who handle the truth. The right and wrong should be own by the people.
the Happy Light 