Janna Anderson And Lee Rainie — The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online

Experts are evenly split on whether the coming decade will see a reduction in false and misleading narratives online. Those forecasting improvement place their hopes in technological fixes and in societal solutions. Others think the dark side of human nature is aided more than stifled by technology.

It's folly to think that the Internet is responsible for fake news as a new phenomenon as a social influence. It's been around for a long time in various forms. The Platonic dialogue, The Sophist, is about false persuasion by "making the worse look the better."

Falsity proliferated with the invention of the printing press. So has censorship. 

The Internet has just brought more of it and amplified it.

The only real solution in a liberal society is improvement in critical thinking ability. On the other hand, governments always want to control the narrative and will seek to impose censorship to do so, along with actual control of the narrative through establishment organs. 

The chief threat is from the side of government and the ruling elite, since they control the levers of power. Liberal constitutions and courts are supposed to offset this and limit the use of power by the power elite.

Pew Research Center
The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online
Janna Anderson And Lee Rainie

See also

Bloomberg
Almost two-thirds say this is the lowest point in U.S. history—and it’s keeping a lot of them up at night.

Deena Shanker