"Fake News" and disinformation

• As "fake news" proliferate, disinformation threatens democracy and efficient governance.
• There is empirical evidence that false news are spreading significantly "faster, deeper, and more broadly" than the true ones. An MIT study found that the top 1% of false news cascades diffused to 1,000 - 100,000 people, whereas the true ones rarely reached more than 1,000 people.
  | Related Megatrends: Technology; Inequalities; Security
• Low-cost computers are replacing high-cost weapons as an instrument of power in asymmetrical cyber and information warfare. Information security has to address a wide and diverse range of "enemies"—from the “geek in the back room” to criminal organizations and governments. 
  | Related Megatrends: Technology; Geopower; Security
• Smartphones are increasingly seen as weapons of mass manipulation. | Related Megatrends: Security
• An estimated 66% of links to popular websites shared on tweeter are generated by automated accounts.
  | Related Megatrends: Technology; Inequalities; Security
• As of 2017, more advertising money is spent on Internet than on television, and half of all Internet traffic is via mobile phones. 
  | Related Megatrends:Technology; Consumerism
• The merger of main Chinese state media (China Central Television (CCTV), China Radio International and China National Radio) into one "Voice of China" is consolidating Chinese state media power and the message it wants to disseminate, but is questioning even more democracy. | Related Megatrends: Expanding influence of East and South

More on this Megatrend