Fake News is the information that is not true or is wrong and is spread deliberately in order to deceive people or make them believe in a certain ideology or perspective. This information is often sensational and misleading. Today in this article we will go through what fake news could be, why it can spread, and how blockchain comes into play to bring an end to this.

Fake news takes different forms.

• The first form is misinformation, which refers to accidentally spreading false information. This often happens when a source is inaccurate or someone shares information without verification.

• Another form is disinformation, which refers to intentionally spreading false information. This is often to promote an agenda. For example, confusing voters by spreading fake news during elections.

• The third form is malinformation, which is true information but presented in such a way that it is misled or hurtful out of context. Its purpose is often to defame someone or damage their reputation.

• Another form that has emerged in recent years is the deepfake. It utilizes AI deepfake technology to doctor videos and audio to generate realistic fake content of genuine people.

The three major reasons in my view are these:

The first reason is the influence of social media and digital platforms. Nowadays everyone has a smartphone and people stay connected all the time on social media. These forms help spread fake news easily and quickly and people share it without thinking.

Second reason is confirmation bias. People often like things that support their own thinking or ideology. If a news matches their thinking, they believe it without verifying it and share it further.

Third reason, in my opinion, is lack of media literacy. Many people do not know how news is verified or how to identify credible sources. Because of this, they easily fall prey to fake news and spread it further without verifying it.

Blockchain is an open, decentralized ledger technology, making data immutable and transparent. Let’s discuss some of these features that make it a powerful weapon against fake news.

Immutability: Once data is recorded on the blockchain, it is impossible to change or delete it. This becomes very useful against fake news as once the original information is on the block chain it cannot be tampered with. In this manner, people know the information they are receiving are identical to the information archived earlier.

Transparency: All transaction records are open to public, and the public can verify its authenticity at any time. This helps for none of the fake information can go unnoticed and people can very soon verify if the news is actually real or it is fake.

Traceability: There is a clear path of each transaction on the blockchain. This feature is really useful, especially when tracking provenance. It implies origin of any News or Information and the remaining path via which they have traveled.

Smart Contracts: Smart contracts are automated contracts on the blockchain that execute when certain conditions are met. This is a handy feature for automating verification and validation steps. This means news that fail to meet certain credibility thresholds will automatically be rejected.

Blockchain can be used to build content verification platforms. The function of these platforms is to register every news, photo or video on the blockchain. When a journalist or content creator uploads their content, they generate a unique hash on the blockchain. This hash is a kind of digital fingerprint that uniquely identifies the content. Users and readers can easily visit the blockchain to verify that the content is original and that no changes have been made to it.

Another important use of blockchain is in provenance tracking systems. These systems ensure that the original source of any material and its route of travel can be traced. For example, a news article is registered on the blockchain and its unique identifier is generated. When this article is shared, a record of each share is updated on the blockchain. In this way, at any time it is possible to see where the news article originated and which sources shared it.

Blockchain-based digital identity verification solutions can also work against fake news. These are the solutions to bring journalists and content creators to their true identity. Content must be verified on the blockchain any time a journalist or content creator uploads content. In that case, readers know that this had been authored by a verified person and hence there are fewer chances of a fake news sort of situation.

There may be some constraints to blockchain technology but one thing we know is that it can be used to mitigate fake news. Fake news creates a seed of mistrust and division within society, and this is where the immutability, transparency, and traceability that is offered through blockchain looks like the only real solution.

^{Author: @waqarahmadshah | Date: 31-May-2024 | Achievement 1}