On fake news

I wrote yesterday about the story regarding the child who was in Leeds General Infirmary for suspected pneumonia, and was being treated on the floor.

Well, there was a sustained attempt to discredit the story, accuse the parents of staging the shot. And then there was punch-gate.

First of all, the paper that broke the story, The Yorkshire Post replied in a statement today saying that the parents had contacted them. The paper then contacted the hospital to investigate whether it was true.

The hospital confirmed the story was true, the child was treated on the ground, and the hospital apologised.

So, why was there a concerted campaign to discredit the story, and then create another event, a minister's aide being punched invented to take attention away.

More interestingly, by analysing data, it can traced how the fake story regarding the original story and the fake punch were spread.

A few "influencers", and I hate that term, but people like Dan Hodges, Guido Fawkes, Julie Hartly Brewer helped start the spread, and followers then spread it further. And then fake profiles were created each either on Twitter or Facebook posting identical messages saying how the image was faked or that Labour had bused or taxied in protesters to facilitate the attack at the hospital.

The ease on how such stories are created and spread raises profound questions how anyone can trust information on social media, and the impact that is going to have in democracy. This is not going to be easy by any means, and if the stories help the ruling party then there is no impulse on them to fix the issue, not when most media outlets are firmly behind them.

But most interestingly, it shows people believe something not because of the source and reliability, but because it backs what they want to believe. And like Brexit, if the facts contradict that, then it must be the facts that are fake.

And that is where we are: a post-facts, post-truth society, where an election is going to be won by producing more and more fake news, getting bots and useful idiots to spread it further. So much fake news that the truth is lost, and half the population don't care anyhow.

Politicians have always lied, and people have cared that when those lies are found out, the guilty is forced to resign. Now, here in Brexit Britain and in Trump's America, the people lied to don't care. And don't care who gets hurt or killed in the process.

This is the final stage of Big Brother, when he convinces the people not to believe their own senses.