Fake news could be a good thing for us. Anything that shocks people from the default settings in which they are programmed to devour anything in their Facebook feed without the ironic distance or critical distance required to question the sources and claims of news channels.
As far as I can tell, we face (at least) two different kinds of fake news. First, claims about states of affairs that are simply false, and knowingly false. Second, people’s reception of fabricated facts and they way they spin these fabricated facts to fit contextually with their worldview.
As long as human populate the planet there’s the specter of “fake” haunting communication. Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Breitbart news didn’t invent this phenomenon.
Digital platforms have enabled the democratization and scale of distributing fake news. Corporate media hates fake news only because they no longer have a monopoly on its distribution. —As if the NYT didn’t peddle garbage about WMD.
Fake news should inspire FAQ news. Frequently Antagonistic Questions about our news and its sources. We should wield and equip ourselves with an incessant and relentless skeptical impetus to understand and seek understanding.
Truth is not something that just lands in your News Feed. You have to work for that shit. It takes effort. It’s an adventure that many undergo throughout their whole lives. It takes courage. You need something like a Sapere aude guiding your journey to understand the world and its complexities.
No one, not even “those who study knowledge”, are going to produce an algorithm that simply and conveniently reduces knowledge and truth to an elevator pitch. Moreover, we can’t idly and lazily sit back and demand of Facebook and Google and Germany that they do the work of truth for us. It’s the responsibility of a responsible citizen, and our duty as agents in the world to assess the claims we receive from whatever source.