The government must wake up to the danger of fake news before its too late

Fake news has been around for decades. But it was normally the preserve of despotic regimes. Now it’s threatening to undermine democracies across the world. The rise of the internet means that, in the words of Mark Twain, ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes’. You can normally assume newspapers, irrespective of their political stance, have sourced and doubled checked their facts. But with the explosion of social media, we need to adapt our mentality to make sure people start questioning the sources and veracity of their news more. While the government, rightly, commits billions to tackle cyber security to protect the nation form cyberattacks, disinformation has become a new front in the cyberwar.

This week we have finally seen tentative moves to get a grip of the issue. Ipso have launched a logo aimed at tackling fake news by giving websites a form of accreditation.