November 2019
Premise
Polarisation resulting from political bias; the influence of advertising; fake news projecting doubt on the democratic process and fuelling fissures among public trust in the media and our institutions. We've looked into the 2016 referendum and its subsequent and ongoing fallout to understand how Brexit shaped our post-truth world.
Blockchain technology is known to minimise the need for trust and offering immutability of data; could these two aspects help mitigate the influence of disinformation?
Industry Perspective
The report discusses the phenomenon of fake news, how it surrounded the 2016 EU membership referendum, and the political fallout it causes. The key to finding strategic solutions and mitigating the impact on our society is to understand why and how disinformation is spread.
Whether it is an act of foreign interference, or simply a result of the polarisation of our political landscape; the result is a loss of trust in the media, our institutions, and eventually our democratic process.
Blockchain Angle
Two of the key characteristics of blockchain technology are trust and immutability. Although the technology comes with a variety of features, it is these two that are both at the very core of the technology and provide much potential to facilitate technological solutions.
Access our report to learn how blockchain technology can help protect European citizens from fake news.
