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We’ve all been there. You see a clickbait title on an article, read it, cannot believe its contents, and forward it to a friend for them to swiftly reply to let you know “this is not real.” According to the Pew Research Center, 23% of adults have shared fake news, and 64% said fake news caused confusion on basic facts.
With the rise of AI-generated content and viral misinformation, the threat of fake news feels more prevalent now than ever. In fact, NewsGuard discovered and dubbed what they call unreliable AI-generated news sites (UAINS) as the “next generation of content farms.” Its independent study of these sources found that the number of UAINS continues to grow at a pace, doubling in size in the last 12 months, proving fake news is not going anywhere soon.
It is up to the media outlets, as well as the public, to do their best to mitigate the effects of fake news. News organizations do more than just report the facts – they also curate, verify, and provide context to information related to occurrences happening around the world. But, as pressures to break stories grow and newsrooms shrink, it is becoming harder. I have spoken with journalists who describe firsthand just how challenging it has become to find authentic stories, especially as false content circulates on social media.
Blockchain, which has historically been used for financial transactions, could be an important part of the solution.
At its core, public blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that records transactions in an immutable, transparent manner. Once information is recorded, it cannot be altered without consensus from the network, and each participant in the network has access to the same data. This inherent transparency promotes trust and improves efficiency in information sharing.
Here’s how it works for newsrooms: The carefully curated, validated, and original content of an article, document or statement is run through a hashing algorithm, which creates a unique digital fingerprint. This fingerprint (or hash) is then stored on the blockchain.
Later, for anyone wanting to verify their copy, they can simply run it through the same hashing process. If the returned hash matches the one on the blockchain, it means the document is identical to the original, proving it hasn’t been altered. From a media organization’s perspective, this process can be easily automated. Using this hashing process, it would be possible to confirm who originally published the quote and whether it has been manipulated or not, counteracting potential threats like deepfakes.
News agencies are already embracing hashing as a means to restore and protect trust. During the 2020 pandemic, ANSA, Italy’s largest news agency, was faced with the challenge of fake news head-on.
Three fake stories were published with their branding, falsely reporting on the state of the government’s lockdown and restrictions. These stories damaged ANSA’s reputation, so they turned to blockchain to re-establish their credibility as a reliable news source. They created a specialized “ANSAcheck” icon for articles that had been notarized through blockchain. By clicking on the check, readers could see author details, any amendments that were made to the article and more.
This allowed ANSA to prove articles were written by ANSA staff – not fake spoofs.
Blockchain technology is very useful to verify the origin of information but cannot replace media outlets or do their job for them. As mentioned above, news organizations curate, verify, and provide context – all of which blockchains cannot do.
Starting with curation, media outlets determine which articles readers see and which they do not. Since 1896, The New York Times has carried the motto, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” The message was clear: if a story met the Times' high journalistic standards, it would likely make it to print.
But in today’s Information Age, the sheer volume of news far surpasses what any single organization can cover. News outlets must decide what to cover and in so doing, what you see and hear about.
Blockchain cannot make a story that is deemed unnewsworthy be told, and it cannot control what makes the front page. While blockchain technology excels at storing data in a tamper-proof way, it does not control the creation of that data or prevent the input of false data.
If journalism is the presentation of facts or the description of events presented to readers to interpret and opine – the ability to verify the information source is a crucial enabler in being able to critically assess integrity and evaluate the information we are consuming. In a world where UAINS are growing in number and reach, we need to understand why and how the stories we consume are written.
Content generation is faster and more prolific than ever, and blockchain can play a vital role in providing both the transparency and trust needed to navigate this fast-changing industry.
