Study: 98% of kids in the UK can’t tell fake news from the truth

Study: 98% of kids in the UK can’t tell fake news from the truth

4 years ago
Anonymous $yQ5BfQaAxy

https://thenextweb.com/syndication/2020/01/26/study-98-of-kids-in-the-uk-cant-tell-fake-news-from-the-truth/

The 2019 general election is already being remembered as the one where misinformation went mainstream. It was, of course, already on the political agenda after the 2016 referendum and US election, with growing numbers of academics and parliament sounding the alarm over foreign actors using so-called “fake news” to disrupt the democratic processes.

But what was seen over the election period was not the work of fringe actors. Instead, major political parties appeared to adopt tactics previously associated with shady players operating at the edges of the information ecosystem. No major party was entirely innocent, as evidenced by First Draft’s Cross Check project. But the Conservatives’ campaign repeatedly adopted controversial tactics. Tactics such as having its press office pose as a fact-checking service and editing BBC news footage to imply that prominent journalists supported the party’s line on Brexit.