In a world of instant access to information and connectivity, we are seeing an unprecedented level of fake news, fuelling disruption and disinformation, and undermining trust. Fake news is not new and has been around for centuries. What’s different now is the availability of technical tools at our fingertips. This, coupled with increasing distrust of both mainstream media and social media channels, has led to logarithmic multipliers of false information. As digital disinformation becomes more prevalent, one technology is rapidly emerging with the potential to address the root causes of and risks associated with misleading and manipulated media. Blockchain, Kathryn Harrison, founder and CEO of the DeepTrust Alliance says can help in three key areas: a blockchain-based system could offer a decentralized, trusted mechanism for verifying the provenance and other important metadata for online content; enable content creators and sharers to maintain a reputation independent of any publication or institution; and possibly incentivize the creation and distribution of content that meets community-driven standards for accuracy and integrity.
To access Kathryn Harrison’ full article on How Blockchain Can Help Combat Disinformation, click: https://hbr.org/2021/07/how-blockchain-can-help-combat-disinformation