Give children tools to filter social media - Challenging online dishonesty

WHEN The Irish Press was first published in 1931 — Pádraig Pearse’s mother pressed the button to start the printing press — the paper’s founder Éamon de Valera said the paper’s purpose was: “To give the truth in the news ...” 

Despite that noble ambition, one more easily expressed than realised, The Irish Press was, in reality, an arm of Fianna Fáíl. It was established to ensure that party had a reliable cheerleader on Ireland’s news stands. Though hardly as sinister as Pravda, the Russian communists’ klaxon, it served the same purpose.

The weekend acknowledgment from Mark Zuckerberg that Facebook must tackle fake news, dressed as fact, seems a contemporary version of that age-old dilemma: where does truthful and objective news end and barely-disguised propaganda begin? Zuckerberg also argued the hoax stories on the social network did not influence the the US election. He, it must be imagined, made this assertion with a straight face because the American election — and Brexit — was won by advancing one fake, post-factual fantasy after the other. That president-elect Trump is, thankfully, rowing back on some of his wilder promises — “We’ll build the wall and Mexico will pay” — just confirms that.